Teamwork improves efficiency and brings better results for the company. A perfect example is the negotiations for our first bauxite shipments between two of Argos’ operations in the US.

Fifty-six thousand metric tons of the raw material were recently purchased for our Martinsburg and Newberry plants to be used as an aluminum source for their clinker production process.

Martinsburg made the change from other alumina sources to bauxite in 2019 with the purchase of the new Turkish product. Now in 2021, Newberry has decided to follow their lead. These shipments were purchased through Ilhan Trading, a trading house based in Turkey, which also owns this bauxite mine.

Argos’ Trading team performed the negotiations for the material and freight transportation, while our Supply Chain direction in Argos Cement LLC managed to negotiate the logistics for storage for the shipments in Baltimore, making this deal possible.

Martinsburg:

1. The plant replaced bottom ash, which was high in mercury, very wet, and can be challenging to handle. This change also replaced the need for the calcium chloride required to achieve low alkali and eliminated the need to inject hydrated lime in the alkali bypass to control HCL emissions.
2. Estimated savings of $2/T of Low Alkali clinker depending on the purity of bauxite, saving around $400k-$800k per year.

Newberry:

1. The plant replaced fly ash and bottom ash purchased before from 3 different sources, which were also high in mercury, thus affecting the plant performance. Bauxite is a more stable material, adds almost zero mercury, and combined with local fly ash and sodium silicate, provides the required alkali without increasing the alumina.
2. Estimated savings of $1.33/T. Therefore $2.47 MM per year.

Baseline raw mix cost (Before bauxite) was 8.99 USD per metric ton. Using bauxite and SCB Fly ash as a source of alumina and sodium silicate as an alkali source, the new raw mix cost is 7.66 USD per metric ton.