By Dada Jackson Senior Correspondent, Lagos

In furtherance of efforts aimed at bringing down the soaring cement price before year’s end, the Dangote Group, owners of Ibeshe Cement Plant in Ogun State, has hinted that the multi-billion-naira plant will be ready for commissioning in June, this year. Deputy Director (Projects), in charge of the plant Ved Prakash Sarkari, dropped the hint last week while conducting media executives round the facilty.The cost of the entire plant, including the power plant, according to Sarkari, is $620 million (about N93b). The plant has two lines with each of the lines producing 6,000 tonnes of cement per day, totalling 12,000 tonnes of cement daily. With a projection of 20,000 bags per day, multiplied by 12, the total bags of cement that will be churned out by the plant is not expected to be less than 240,000 bags daily when fully in operation. Prakash said that at “full throttle,” the Ibeshe Cement Plant would produce six million metric tonnes of cement per annum.He added that the Ibeshe plant has three power plants of 35MW each. He pointed out that though the official commissioning of the plant would be in the second quarter of the year, the plant would, however, start test running in April and, at the same time, commence the production of clinkers in the same month (April). He was quick to add that the kiln (where excess products are kept) was ready. The project supervisor said that the facility, which is nearing completion, has state-of-the-art equipment that are second to none in the whole of Africa. He added that finishing touches were being put to the plant, noting that such important components as the conveyor belt, however, is still under construction. He added that in line with the practice worldwide, the plant was located in a place where raw materials for the production of the commodity are in abundance. This, he noted, informed the confidence being exuded by the company that the high cement prices currently being experienced in some parts of the country would soon become a thing of the past. The raw materials at Ibeshe, he stated, are expected to last for 400 years, pointing out that the mines would equally last for another 90 years. According to him, the Ibeshe plant has five mining points where the limestones are processed. A notable feature of the plant is that dumpers (heavy duty trucks) would be provided to carry the limestone from the mines to the crushers. The dumpers, he stated, have different carrying capacity ranging from 40, 60 to 70 tonnes weight per dumper. Another unique feature of the Ibeshe plant is the three state-of-the art storage facilities which it has. He said that about eight communities which  border the plant were adequately compensated by the company when it came on board, adding that, as of now, the company does not have any cause to worry about unnecessary encroachment from any of them.

http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=29934&print=1