- Italcementi Group

Work in progress in south Morocco for Italcementi Group subsidiary Ciments du Maroc. The landscape around the new plant of Ait Baha has dramatically changed. Construction of all main structures is almost finished within the scheduled timeframe for the new plant that will replace the one located in Agadir, operating since 1952 and no longer upgradable. So far, 30% of all civil engineering works have been completed. Also road works and connections to the electric power line and to the telecom lines are nearly finished.

The plant in Ait Baha, located 50 km from Agadir, is expected to be operational by the end of 2009 with an estimated annual production capacity of 2.1 million tons of cement, entailing an investment of more than 300 million Euro.
Despite a rather gloomy outlook for the world economy, Ciments du Maroc’s new cement plant is an important investment for Italcementi Group operating in an emerging country and confirms once more the company’s commitment to Sustainable Development and environmental protection issues through the use of Best Available Technologies to meet both industrial and environmental requirements. In this respect, the most innovative equipment to be installed at the Ait Baha plant will be the heat recovery and the electrical power generation systems, which will reduce significantly water consumption to cool down hot gases.

Facts and figures:

Roads:
main roads 1007 and 1709 broadening and strengthening of a 29-km-long section: 80% of works accomplished
construction of a 6.6 km-long service road around the plant: main section on 410 ha already accomplished
Piped water:
Pumping and storage station: 80% accomplished
Pipe laying: 75% accomplished
Power:
Power line of 225KV: 70% accomplished
Construction of 2 x 40 MVA main substation: 40% accomplished
Telecommunications:
FH installation in the site to provide GSM coverage, fixed telephony and internet services

Work on site:
Civil engineering: 30% accomplished. Work in progress: technical and administrative buildings, cement silos, homo silo, cement grinding facility, clinker dome storage and 225 KV substation.

The new Ait Baha project is unique in southern Morocco, supplying a wide area from Agadir to Laayoune and located within an area destined to industrial development with no impact on urban agglomerations.
In recent years, cement consumption in the region has grown considerably, resulting in a saturation of the plant’s capacity to meet the growing demand for social housing and basic infrastructure developments, along with the resumption of major investments in the tourism industry.
Moreover, this location is thought to be specially advantageous since the plant is very proximate to the locally available reserves of raw materials such as limestone and alumino-silicate materials, which would permit the plant to operate for more than one hundred years. Significant infrastructure works will be accomplished to allow existing roads and networks to cope with the traffic generated by the plant’s activity.

The Italcementi project, which entails the use of the Best Available Technologies, places great attention on the architectural layout and the integration of the plant’s facilities into the surrounding environment. The challenge is to harmoniously blending the site infrastructure with the natural & cultural environment, considering local climate parameters and energy resources. A massive planting programme at the periphery of the site and the creation of a 310-acre green belt around the plant are planned. Attention will be paid to the visual integration of the industrial site from both a ground and aerial perspective , due to the proximity of the Agadir Al Massira airport.

Consistently with Italcementi Group’s commitment to minimizing environmental impacts, the implementation of a more sustainable production process represents a key factor for the success and efficiency of the Ait Baha project. Materials extracted from the quarry will be transported to the plant on a conveyor belt, which will significantly curb vehicle traffic between the plant and the quarry, while excavating operations will almost be invisible from the road and the surrounding areas. The limestone formation depth will allow minimizing the extension of open surface areas thus created, which will not exceed 150 acres after 50 years of operation at a rate of 2.5 million tons of material excavated per year.