Cement factories and high technology are not concepts that ordinarily sit together, but BGC’s newly completed cement factory employs modern technology to create a highly automated operation.
The $44 million plant has an annual production capacity of 860,000 tonnes, which BGC boss Len Buckeridge said makes it the biggest in Australia.
The centrepiece of the factory is a 5,000-horsepower mill, fully enclosed in a concrete casement to reduce noise.
The plant features a series of automated conveyors, weighbridges and loading and unloading stations.
Entry and exit from the plant is controlled by swipe cards, which are programmed with details of each truck either delivering supplies or picking up a load of cement.
“All of that is pretty bloody state-of-the-art,” Mr Buckeridge said.
The cement plant will have just two operational staff, though it will also employ maintenance staff.
The plant, which has taken three years to complete, is just a few hundred metres from James Point, where a BGC subsidiary is planning to build a new port.
Mr Buckeridge plans to link the wharf and the cement plant with a series of conveyors once the port is completed.
He also plans to double the capacity of the cement factory by installing a second cement mill.
“James Point needs to be up and running before you’d put the second mill in,” Mr Buckeridge told WA Business News.
BGC’s existing Canning Vale plant, which has three cement mills, will become a dedicated plant producing ‘exotic’ products, such as white cement, slag cement, oil well, coarse grind and bagged cement.
Mr Buckeridge said the extra supplies from Kwinana would enable BGC to fully utilise its automated bagging equipment at Canning Vale.
“We have had the most automated state-of-the-art bagging plant for several years but hitherto have not had the cement to actively pursue production of bagged cement,” he said.
The BGC facility will compete with an expanded bagging plant at Cockburn Cement’s Kwinana factory.
