Gypsum industry news

Spain: Saint-Gobain Placo’s Ebro Gelsa gypsum wallboard plant has achieved silver certification for operational excellence under the World Class Manufacturing (WCM) programme. Its score improved to 63 points from 53 two years previously. Auditors recognised ‘clear progress in the different WCM pillars in recent years’ and ‘a clear strategy going ahead,’ noting a ‘high degree of safety’ at the plant.

China: Mainland China's leading cement producer Conch Cement has announced that it is seeking bidders for a gypsum supply contract. The contract will cover the supply of synthetic gypsum produced by flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) between 1 February 2020 and 31 July 2020.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: A three-month test run of hot flue gas desulphurisation at RiTE’s Ugljevik coal-fired power station in the Republika Srpska region began on 13 December 2019. The Euro80m installation will reduce sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions to 200ppm from 16,000ppm, in accordance with European Union standards, and produce an unspecified quantity of gypsum. Ugljevik manager Čedomir Stojanović said, “we are considering the construction of a second plant.”

Australia: Gavin Burton, the managing director of Knauf Australia, has denied speculation in the local press that the company was planning to sell its Bundaberg gypsum wallboard plant in Queensland. Burton told the Bundaberg NewsMail newspaper that the company was ‘very happy’ with its plant.

The response followed speculation in the Australian newspaper that Knauf might want to sell assets in the country in order to preserve a 50% stake in USG Boral’s business in Australia and New Zealand. Germany’s Knauf acquired USG in April 2019. In August 2019 Boral said it had entered into an agreement with Germany’s Knauf to form an expanded 50:50 plasterboard joint venture in Asia and for Boral to return to 100% ownership of USG Boral Australia & New Zealand. However, this was subject to regulatory approval.

UK: British Gypsum’s mine at Brightling near Robertsbridge has provided gypsum samples to researchers from the Natural History Museum. The rock specimens are intended to aid the scientists in looking at signs of past life in preparation for a joint European Space Agency and Russian Roscosmos State Corporation mission to send a robotic rover to mars in July 2020, according to the Rye & Battle Observer newspaper. Previously, NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity found bright veins of a mineral, which appeared to be gypsum, in 2011.

"Minerals like those found at Brightling hide clues within them that can tell us about the history of liquid water where they formed, and they have the potential to trap and preserve organic material. Studying these natural fresh samples on Earth that mimic not just the minerals, but also the formation environments we see on Mars, will give us an insight into the potential for life to be detectable at the ExoMars2020 landing site," said Louisa Preston, UK Space Agency Aurora Research Fellow and member of the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum.