About the sector
Stones and cements of Wallonia - A natural treasure jealously guarded over the centuries
Our Belgian "petit granit", better known under the name of Walloon Blue Stone, is to the architect what Carrare marble is to the sculptor! No more and no less. After all, Walloon marbles have been exported since the times of the Roman Empire. They adorn the floors of not only Versailles, the Vatican Palace and the Topkapi Palace, but also the floors of the Kairouan Mosque! The claim to fame does not end there, as while Roman architecture made wide use of Tournai stone, you can set foot on porphyry cobblestones from Quenast and Lessines all over the world.
Despite its small size, for centuries the Walloon substratum has been the source of numerous varieties of construction stones. In fact, Wallonia hosts a wealth of mineral resources, mainly consisting of sedimentary rocks of marine origin. This natural treasure is the result of a long geological history that dates back over 500 million years and whose intense exploitation started back in the flint mines of the Palaeolithic period.
Today, the quarries are more active than ever with the on-going mining of limestone and siliceous stones. The first category includes the Blue stones (Petit granit, Petit granit du Bocq, Calcaire de Vinalmont, Calcaire de Longpré, Pierre de Tournai - Noir de Tournai), marbles (Marbre Noir de Golzinne, Marbre noir de Dinant, Red, pink and grey marbles, Marbre Grand Antique de Meuse) and white stones (Calcaire gréseux de Fontenoille, Calcaire gréseux de Gobertange). As for the siliceous stones, they include the Grès du Condroz, Arkose, Quartzite, shale sandstone, shale and flint.
The extractive industry
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Contemporary Wallonia boasts a century-old mining tradition. It offers a broad range of products manufactured by using the latest cutting-edge techniques. Alongside the production of shaped stones, granulates, various crushed stones and sand are mostly earmarked for civil engineering and construction in particular. These products are obtained from the extractive industries that operate quarries for the production, transformation and marketing of lime, limestone, stones, gravel, marbles, sands and other mineral components, including clinker cement. The cement industry plays a very important role in Belgium, directly employing almost 1,500 workers, and indirectly another 17,000 if you take into account the indirect jobs generated by the activity of the sub-contractors and suppliers.
The Walloon Region extracts almost 50 million tonnes of mined products ever year, of which, excluding the cement, lime and calcined dolomites, almost 11 million tonnes are exported, mainly to France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The Walloon lime producers, the world leaders in this field, produce 2 million tonnes every year.
Furthermore, the activity of many Walloon quarries creates a considerable demand for workers that is directly or indirectly linked to the extractive industry itself.
The sub-contractors of the extractive companies
In addition to the 2,000 jobs directly linked to quarrying work in Wallonia, it is estimated that 12,000 indirect jobs are linked to the operational quarries.
The plant sub-contracting sector can be broken down into three sub-sectors, all linked to the extractive industry market:
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Companies that manufacture or repair plant and machines for extraction and construction
Companies that manufacture or repair lifting and handling equipment
Companies that are active in the field of general mechanics, the construction of welded units for industrial plant.
Walloon companies have earned a reputation and developed know-how in these three sectors, underpinned by far-reaching experience. Many offer their plant and services to the sectors concerned.
Research consultancies, in particular, are entrusted with projects related to construction, infrastructure, total water management, the environment, spatial planning, calculations and plans for all of the plant such as complete grinding units, the manufacture of furnaces, rotary dryers, bearings, rotary equipment (mills, furnaces, dryers, etc.).
Other companies specialise in the complete analysis of the grinding process with the aim of improving specific technological processes, in particular in the field of the processing of solid wastes.
The research and development of the component manufacturers also cover vertical mills with pendular rollers with a selector limiting pointless grinding and offering simultaneous grinding and drying, or even desanding grinders that guarantee higher protection against metallic parts and that can process products that are already finely ground thanks to the dragging of the rollers, grinding by crushing without cutting and limited wear and tear.
Certain component manufacturers concentrate on the sale, design, manufacture and maintenance of standard or special industrial ventilators, horizontal and vertical centrifugal pumps, the study, manufacture and sale of rail tracks for handling equipment, magnetic equipment, foundry parts that are resistant to wear and tear, shocks and high temperatures, anti-abrasive products, explosives for industrial use, etc.
Many providers also offer crushing, grinding, sifting and washing services.
Paving the way for the future
Far from resting on its laurels, the sector demonstrates a high degree of vitality when it comes to research and development.
The CRIC (Centre national de Recherche scientifique et technique pour l’Industrie Cimentière) has set itself the following aims:
- to become a competence centre in the field of research, tests, expertise and analysis in the field of cement and its applications
- to ensure the national and European certification of cement, mortar, masonries and their components (cement, granulates, additives, fly ash for concrete). The competence of the specialists of the CRIC in the field of cement and its applications also justifies their participation as experts within technical commissions, at both national (IBN) and international (CEN and ISO) level. They are concerned in particular with :
- the environmental compatibility of concrete in order to better pinpoint the environmental impact linked to the setting up of concrete structures on a site
- the chemical durability of concrete from a preventative point of view in terms of alkali-silica reaction
- the optimisation of concrete formulations.
"The Centre Terre et Pierre (CTP), situated in Tournai (Belgium) is, for its part, a centre of excellence active in the field of processing, recovery, development and optimal exploitation of solid materials, primary materials (metallic and non metallic ores, industrial minerals but also chemical and agrifood products) and secondary materials (wastes, residues, sludge, plastics, etc.). The technologies mastered within this framework range from fragmentation (crushing, grinding, etc.) to hydrometallurgical processing, as well as classification (sifting, hydrocyclonage, etc.), densimetric, magnetic, electrostatic, flotation separation, etc.
Both in
Supported in its efforts by the Walloon Region, it is currently working on a development programme relating to the problem of removing dust from granulated materials by pneumatic means using the so-called "
Finally, the not-for-profit association Pierres et Marbres de Wallonie supplies quality information about stone and its applications to the general public, architects, developers and the public authorities.
CTP
Centre Technologique international de la Terre et de la Pierre
Chaussée d’Antoing, 55
BE-7500 Tournai
Tél.: +32 (0)69/88.42.51
Fax: +32 (0)69/88.42.59
E-mail: ctp@ctp.be
CRIC
Centre national de Recherche scientifique et technique pour l’Industrie Cimentière
Rue Volta, 10
BE-1050 Brussels
Tel.: +32 (0)2/645.52.51
Fax: +32 (0)2/645.52.61
E-mail: cric-occn@cric.be
CSTC
Centre Scientifique et Technique de la Construction
Boulevard Poincaré, 79
BE-1060 Brussels
Tel.: +32 (0)2/502.66.90
Fax: +32 (0)2/502.81.80
E-mail: info@bbri.be
Internet: www.bbri.be