Situated right next to the Eskom power station, Ash Resources gets its ash directly from the adjoining Eskom operations, enabling them to develop their product with much ease. The AL for Infrastructure team was welcomed and hosted by the General Manager of Ash Resources, Asser Tau, who walked us through the daily operations of the plant.
Ash Resources is South Africa’s leading manufacturer and supplier of fly ash products. Founded in 1979, the company’s pioneering development work has turned a waste product of Eskom’s pulverized coal-fired power stations into an environmentally friendly and sustainable building material. Through their ongoing research programs in partnership with local and international technical institutions, Ash Resources is continually providing fly ash product solutions, helping to create more effective cement formulations and high-performance concrete mix designs for the construction industry both locally and abroad. AL for Infrastructure has benefited has had a fruitful collaboration with Ash Resources in this sense by deploying talent to discover and innovate new ways of using fly ash.
Ash Resources offers the engineering industry sustainable options with the core belief that sustainable development must be an essential part of the search for more efficient and effective products and solutions for the construction industry. The international trend is to develop new cement formulations that use less clinker, and consequently reduce the environmental impact of the cement manufacturing process for this most important building material. Ash Resources’ siliceous fly ash is an effective Portland cement enhancer that, when used as a binder, enhances both the fresh and hardened properties of concrete.
The main market sectors in which their customers operate are:
- Factory blended cement production
- Jobsite and ‘within-mixer’ concrete batching on major civil and building projects
- Ready-mixed concrete
- Precast concrete
- Mining
- Pre-bagged product formulators
- Rubber and plastic product manufacturers (Plasfill®)
Some of the main projects that Ash Resources fly ash has been used in are the Neckartal Dam in Namibia, Metolong Dam and Water Supply Programme in Lesotho, and Gautrain.
As a subsidiary of our partner organization, Lafarge SA, Ash Resources continues to provide life-changing career development opportunities for the young leaders in our network. The visit to Ash Resources processing plant was an opportunity to further strengthen our partnership as both organizations look towards positively contributing to Africa’s sustainable future. You can apply to join Ash Resources as Quality Control Engineer here or as an Engineering Researcher here.
