Mining

The limestone deposits of Rain Cements Limited (RCL) used to make Priya Cement are excavated using open cast mining techniques. Open cast limestone mining is practiced in cement plants as limestone is readily available on the surface of the earth. These limestone deposits are one of nature’s many gifts. Our limestone is dark grey in color and is the most suitable type for cement manufacturing thanks to its high lime and low silica contents. Moreover, it has no traces of adverse chemicals such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride or sulfur.

Excavation begins as limestone benches are prepared as per IBM standards. An IBH-10 –Atlas Copco drilling machine is then used to bore holes in the limestone bench, which are then filled with ammonium nitrate and Kelvex explosives. Drilling and Nonel blasting is practiced in order to achieve uniformly fragmented limestone with minimum impact on our local community and environment, providing minimum noise level, dust emissions and ground vibration. Nonel detonators are used for efficient blasting. Limestone is blasted bench by bench and excavated with our EX450-TATA HITACHI front-end loader.

Excavators are used to load the fragmented limestone boulders into our 35-ton HM-Dumpers, which are used to transport the limestone to our limestone crusher.