Utah's Cement Industry, and Utah's Railroads

Compiled by Don Strack

This page was last updated on February 8, 2012.

(This is a work in progress; research continues.)

Glossary:

Cement Rock — A low-magnesium clay containing lime. It approaches the ideal combination of lime, alumina and silica for the making of good cement. Utah cement rock is used in the production of Portland cement by Utah plants.

Overview of Cement in Utah

January 1999
In its annual forecast for the cement industry, Cement Americas magazine wrote in its January 1999 issue, "Utah will probably see the highest consumption increases in this region in 1999 due to continuing preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Also, work on the $1.6 billion, 17-mile Interstate 15 highway reconstruction project will continue through July 2001."

2002
Portland cement and lime were the second-highest-value (up from third in 2001) industrial minerals produced in 2002, with a combined value of $159 million. Two operators produce Portland cement in Utah: Holcim, Inc. (formerly Holnam, Inc.) and Ash Grove Cement Company. Holcim's Devils Slide mine and plant is east of Morgan in Morgan County, and Ash Grove's Leamington mine and plant is east of Lynndyl in Juab County. The companies have a combined capacity of more than 1.4 million mt (1.5 million st) of cement annually. Both plants operated near capacity in 2002, with total production slightly exceeding that of 2001. In addition to limestone, both Holcim and Ash Grove Cement mine modest amounts of shale and sandstone that are used in the manufacture of cement. Lime production was about 3 percent higher in 2002 than 2001. There are two suppliers of lime in Utah, with a combined capacity of more than 0.9 million mt (1.0 million st) per year: Graymont Western U.S., Inc. (formerly Continental Lime Company), which produces dolomitic quick lime and high-calcium quick lime; and Chemical Lime of Arizona, Inc., which produces dolomitic quick lime and hydrated lime. Both operations serve markets in Utah and surrounding states. Graymont Western's plant is in the Cricket Mountains, approximately 56 km (35 miles) southwest of Delta in Millard County, and is one of the 10 largest lime plants in the United States. Chemical Lime of Arizona's plant is about 13 km (8 miles) northwest of Grantsville in Tooele County. An additional 10 to 12 operators quarried about 2.1 million mt (2.3 million st) of limestone and dolomite in 2002 that was used mainly for construction and flue-gas desulfurization in coalfired power plants. A small amount of limestone and dolomite is also crushed to a fine powder and marketed as “rock dust” to the coal mining industry. The three largest suppliers of crushed limestone used for construction are: Harper Construction Company, from one quarry in Salt Lake County; Valley Asphalt Company, from two quarries in Utah County; and Pelican Point Rock Products Company (formerly Larsen Limestone Company), from one quarry in Utah County. (2002 Summary of Mineral Activity in Utah)

Devils Slide Cement Plant

Seeing the potential of the limestone mountain, a group of Ogden businessmen formed the Union Portland Cement Company and began construction of a cement plant in the spring of 1904. That first plant boasted small dry kilns capable of producing about 110,000 metric tons of cement annually. After World War II, the company was known as Ideal Cement Company and a new plant was constructed with two long wet kilns that produced about 320,000 metric tons annually. In 1986, one of the largest cement producers in the world, Holderbank Financere Glaris of Switzerland, purchased the company. The company has also been known as Ideal Basic Industries and Holnam. Construction of the latest plant proceeded in February of 1996. Plant employees still use 45-year-old silos along with newer silos, which can store about 115,000 tons of powdered cement. (Standard Examiner, October 22, 2004)

March 1906
Union Portland Cement announced that it would build a plant at Croydon. (Salt Lake Mining Review, March 15, 1906, p. 30) Production began in June 1907. (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 30, 1907, p. 31)

June 1932
In June 1932 the Grass Creek Coal Company began shipping coal to the Union Portland Cement plant at Devils Slide, which was in heavy production to furnish cement for the construction of Boulder Dam. (Public Service Commission of Utah, case 2381, approved June 15, 1940)

Cement rock is quarried at Devils Slide and processed into cement at the big Ideal Cement Co. plant nearby. This is by far Morgan County's major mineral industry. Production value runs into several millions of dollars each year. Vast reserves of rock suitable for cement assure continued production for many years to come. It is interesting to note that the cement plant uses substantial tonnages of iron concentrates from Iron County and gypsum rock from Sevier County in the preparation of its products. (Utah Mining Association, "Operational and Economic Review, August 1967, page 58)

1990
Ideal Cement, which operates the plant at Devils Slide, changed it name to Holnam to reflect its place in a larger group of companies. (Source)

1995
In late 1995 Holcim (US) Inc. decided to build a new dry process cement plant at it's Devil's Slide, Utah plant site to replace an older wet process plant.

1998
Since 1998, Holnam has increased its cement capacity by 1.5 million mt through plant expansions at its Devils Slide, Utah and Midlothian, Texas plants. The company's Florence, Colo. location will be the source of an additional 1.1 million mt when construction of a new plant at that site is completed later this year. (Source)

December 15, 2001
Operator of Morgan plant has new name. Michigan-based Holnam Inc., which operates a cement manufacturing facility in Croydon, Morgan County, has changed its name to Holcim (US) Inc. The company said the change would align it with its Swiss-based corporate parent, originally Holderbank Financiere Glaris Ltd., which changed its name to Holcim Ltd. this year. "Holcim" combines "hol" from the Holderbank name and "cim" from "cimint," the French word for cement and the company's core product. Holcim (US) has 15 manufacturing plants and more than 70 distribution facilities in the United States. It has about 2,500 employees and supplies nearly 15 million metric tons of cement and related materials each year. Revenues in 2000 were about $1.2 billion. The Holcim group has more than 45,000 workers worldwide.(Deseret News, December 15, 2001, page D12)

2001-2002
For the year 2001 Holcim used 844,000 tons of limestone in its cement production from the Devil' s Slide Quarry. For 2002 the limestone production from the Devil's Slide Quarry was 783,028 tons.

November 2002
In an interview in November 2002, the president of Holcim provided the following.

Globally, we have historically operated as a group of individual companies, each company looking to serve customers in its regional markets. Increasingly, we see an industry that's more global in its scope and operations, and so the Holcim Group embarked on a transition from being this group of local and regional companies to a single, worldwide operating group. Here within the United States, we've had some experience with this because Holnam was a brand adopted in 1990 to signify the coming together of a group of individual regional companies known as the Dundee Cement Co., the Santee Cement Co., Northwestern States Portland Cement, Ideal Basic Industries, and United Cement. So we had some experience from the last ten years of becoming a single operating group. (Source)

June 21, 2007
Palladon Ventures Ltd. is pleased to announce that a five-year renewable contract has been executed with Holcim Inc. for the sale of iron ore materials crucial to the cement manufacturing process. Iron ore material will be sold FOB the Comstock/Mountain Lion Mine at Iron Mountain, Utah, and shipped by truck by Holcim to their 800,000-ton capacity Devils Slide facility in Morgan, Utah. Holcim Ltd. is one of the leading global manufacturers and suppliers of cement, aggregates, and mineral components. Holcim Ltd. operates in over 70 countries around the world, employing over 90,000 people. In the United States, Holcim Inc. is one of the largest suppliers of Portland and blended cements, operating 14 manufacturing plants and over 70 distribution facilities, supplying more than 14 million metric tonnes of cement and related materials annually. (Source)

Parleys Canyon Cement Quarry

September 1899
RGW to lay third rail over the narrow gauge Utah Central from Salt Lake City to the cement plant in Parleys Canyon, and will use a standard gauge locomotive to "shuttle" cars from the plant to Salt Lake City. (Salt Lake Daily Tribune, September 3, 1899; September 19, 1899)

September 9, 1946
D&RGW received ICC approval to abandon 24.10 miles of the Park City Branch, between Cement Quarry and Park City, including 2.5 miles of joint trackage in Park City with UP. (ICC Finance Docket 15259, in 267 ICC 802)

January 4, 1956
D&RGW operated the last train to the lime rock cement quarry in Parleys Canyon on the old Park City Branch. The quarry was owned by Utah Portland Cement, and the rock was hauled by D&RGW to the company's cement plant on 900 South. The end of operations was on a three-mile segment of the branch and was needed to support the beginning of construction of a new highway in the canyon. The branch was to have a new end-of-track at Alexander, at the mouth of the canyon, under the Stillman Bridge. The last train was made up of five loaded GS gondolas, a caboose, and an F-M switcher. Almost immediately after the last train, Utah Department of Transportation contractors bulldozed 18 feet of fill dirt over the tracks as part of the new highway construction. (Deseret News, January 5, 1956, courtesy of Dave Gayer)

A quarry in Parley's Canyon, operated by Portland Cement Company of Utah, supplies the needs of the company's Salt Lake City cement plant. Production figures are not available for publication. However, the capacity of the plant is 6,000 bbls. per day. (Utah Mining Association, "Operational and Economic Review, August 1967, page 65)

Portland Cement Company of Utah was sold to Lone Star in (?)

1988
From U. S. Bureau of Mines / Minerals yearbook 1988 (1988):

Plant Closings -- Four plants were taken out of production during the year because of either declining markets or increased competition from imports. Lone Star ceased production at its New Orleans, Louisiana, and Salt Lake City, Utah, plants. The New Orleans plant was leased to Ideal Basic Industries, and the Salt Lake City plant was leased to Mountain Cement Co. Both plants were expected to be used as distribution terminals. The Lone Star/Moore McCormack joint venture plant in Superior, Ohio, was closed. Allied Products Co. closed its Birmingham, Alabama, plant and began using it as a distribution terminal for shipping cement purchased from Ideal Basic's Theodore, Alabama, plant.

Ogden Portland Cement Plant

1909
OSL completed construction of the spur to serve the cement plant of Ogden Portland Cement Company, located near Brigham City. The 1.1-mile line connected with the OSL main line at Bakers and ended at the cement plant, called Opco by the railroad. (ICC Financial Docket 15740, 267 ICC 633) By February 1910 the cement plant was in full production. (Salt Lake Mining Review, February 30, 1910, page 23)

Leamington Cement Plant

1967
Some 20,000 to 25,000 tons of limestone from the Chaffin quarry (loaded at Leamington on Union Pacific) was used each year by Utah-Idaho Sugar Co. in the manufacture of quicklime for use in its Garland and Salt Lake City sugar refineries. (Utah Mining Association, "Operational and Economic Review, August 1967, page 51)

1980
Facility opened in 1980 (Martin Marietta), to furnish cement to the Intermountain Power project at nearby Delta, which began formal construction in September 1981.

April 1984
Martin-Marietta leased the Leamington plant, with an option to buy, to Southwestern Portland Cement Company of Houston, Texas. The capacity was reported as 650,000 tons per year. (http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/SNT19-3.pdf; Deseret News, February 24, 1984; Southwestern Portland Cement press release dated April 4, 1984)

May 1989
Ash Grove Cement purchased the Leamington cement plant from Martin-Marietta, which had been operated under lease by Southwestern Portland Cement Company since early 1984. (Ash Grove press release dated May 9, 1989)

2001
In spring 2001, Ash Grove improved the way its Leamington plant took in both coal fuel and cement-rock feedstock by the installation of what was caled a "Posimetric Feeder". By 2003, twenty months after installation, the feeder was performing well. During 2003, the Leamington plant had a capacity of 840,000 tons per year. Leamington is one of four plants that use the dry process, with four other plants using the wet process to manufacture cement. (Source)

2006
Automated cement loading system completed

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