ISIMANCHI CEMENT PLANT

The Ishimanchi mining zone is found in the south of Ecuador in the Zamora Chinchipe province. Studies of the area have demonstrated that the limestone is high quality. If the clay from Zumba (Zamora Chinchipe) and the plaster from Malacatos (Loja) are added, high quality cement can be produced. The limestone reserves are known to be almost 110 million tons and are speculated to be up to 1,450 billon tons. This would allow a daily production of 1,500 tons of limestone. Thirty-six tractor trailers with a capacity of 80,000 pounds would be required to move all this material.

The main cement factories in Ecuador are in the north of the country. They are: Holcim (Guayaquil), Lafarge (Otavalo), Chimborazo (Chimborazo), Guapan (Azogues). The two first are private companies and the others are public.

The government has an interest in increasing local cement production in order to construct roads throughout the country. The Danish company, FLSmitdth, has shown interest in working with state owned cement factories.

RESERVES

Geological cross sections have been made in order to calculate the quantity of probable and possible reserves.

• Probably reserves: 107`118,453.4 Ton
• Possible reserves: 1,443´386,316.8 Ton

With these reserves, a factory with a capacity of 1500 Tons/day is being considered. (Source: SUBCOMISIÓN ECUATORIANA –PREDESUR- PROYECTO: CEMENTO ISIMANCHI, p.6).

RAW MATERIALS

The cement factory requires many raw materials including: limestone, clay and plaster.

The following is required to produce 450,000 tons of cement a year:

Limestone 450,000 x 1.50 = 675,000 ton/year

Clay 450,000 x 0.15 = 67,500 ton/year

Plaster 450,000 x 0.02 = 9.000 ton/year

 (source SUBCOMISIÓN ECUATORIANA –PREDESUR- PROJECT: CEMENTO ISIMANCHI, p.9)

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