'It will last for 70 years' - Dangote reveals amount of cement reserves at Obajana plant

Dangote Group has said it has a reserve of raw materials for cement production at its Obajana plant in Kogi state that would last for 65 to 70 years.

Engr Benjamin Orekoya, an Assistant Manager in charge of production at the plant, recently disclosed this during a tour of the facility for some journalists.

The journalists, drawn from Kogi, Benue, Kwara, Nasarwa, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, participated in a 2-day environmental journalism workshop at the Dangote Academy, Obajana.

The Climate Africa Media Initiative & Centre organised the workshop with Dangote Cement. The tour took participants to the mines and the mix storage, where the boulders are crushed, reclaimed, and sent to the raw mill before the products are grounded into powder.

“The power is then sent into a silo, heated at a temperature of 1450 degrees Celsius, and sent to the 75,000 tonnes clinker silo; it then goes to the mill, where gypsum is added and ground before being refined to cement and packaged,” he stated.

Daily Independent reported that Orekoya and his associate, Juliana Ishaya, explained that the conveyor belts carry raw materials for cement production and span about 8.5 kilometers from the mines to the final output point.

Obajana is Dangote Cement’s flagship plant and the largest of its three factories in Nigeria at 16.25 million tonnes per annum capacity across five lines.

Opened in 2008 with two lines totaling 5 million tonnes per annum, it was the largest cement factory in Sub-Saharan Africa at some point. The plant is supported by nearly 3,000 Dangote Cement branded trucks.