BENEFICIATION
2
1 & 2. Founded in 1892 as De Eerste Cement Fabrieken Beperkt, PPC’s Hercules factory
outside of Pretoria is still operating today.
F
or well over a century, PPC has
tracked the growth and the
development of South Africa and
Zimbabwe, producing cement
for many iconic landmarks, including
the Union Buildings, the Kariba Dam, the
Gautrain, the Huguenot Tunnel, and Medupi
Power Station, as well as much of southern
Africa’s infrastructure.
Cementing materials have been widely
used since ancient times, with Egyptians
using calcined gypsum as cement, and the
Greeks and Romans using lime and sand
for mortar, adding coarser stones to make
concrete. The Romans also discovered that
adding crushed volcanic ash to lime created
a cement that would set under water —
perfect for constructing harbours.
But it wasn’t until 1824 that the precursor
of modern Portland cement was created by
British stone mason Joseph Aspdin, who took
out a patent for ‘Portland cement’: a mixture
of finely-ground clay and limestone fired
until the limestone was calcined. The first
significant use of this proto-Portland cement
was in a tunnel under the Thames River in
1828. Two decades after Aspdin patented
his cement, the first truly modern Portland
cement was produced by Isaac Johnson, who
fired a mix of chalk and clay at much higher
temperatures than Aspdin did (1 400–
1 500°C), forming minerals that are very
reactive and more strongly cementitious.
Just under half a century later, in 1892,
South Africa’s first cement plant was
established on the outskirts of Pretoria by
Edouard Lippert under the name De Eerste
Cement Fabrieken Beperkt, to counter the
exorbitant cost of importing cement from
Europe. This same facility, today known as
QUARRY SA | NOVEMBER 2017 _ 21