UtahRails.net Copyright 2000-2008 Don Strack

Utah's Limestone and Cement Industry, and Utah's Railroads

Compiled by Don Strack

This page was last updated on June 22, 2007.

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

Glossary:

Limestone Overview

Tooele County is second only to Salt Lake County in the manufacture of lime. The U. S. Lime Division of The Flintkote Co. has a plant near Grantsville that is a consistent and substantial producer from stone quarries nearby. This firm's operations at Dolomite and Flux, northwest of Grantsville, are the biggest in the state. They furnish the limestone for Kennecott Copper Corp.'s large time plant in Salt Lake County. U. S. Lime Division has its own crushing, screening, sizing and pulverizing facilities. It furnishes crushed limestone for use in the smelting of nonferrous metals, in sugar refining, for "sweetening up" of cement by Portland cement manufacturers, as riprap, etc. Pulverized stone is sold for an additive in asphalt black-top road mix, as rock dust for coal mining, as a water purifier in water treatment plants, and for fluorine gas control at the Geneva Works in Utah County. The Utah Marblehead Lime Co. has a $3 million dolomite plant near Delle which furnishes "deadburned" dolomite for the open hearth furnaces at the Geneva Works. (Utah Mining Association, "Operational and Economic Review, August 1967, page 83)

The crushed limestone industry is Utah County's greatest nonmetallic mineral producer. There are good commercial-grade deposits of limestone in various districts, particularly near Payson, at Pelican Point and in the Tintic district, where Chief Consolidated Mining Co. owns properties. Largest operation is the U. S. Steel Corp.'s Keigley Quarry near Payson, which supplies crushed limestone for the Geneva Works, to be used as a fluxing material in the making of steel. This project averages about 300,000 tons per year. The Lakeside Lime & Stone Co. has quarries and a crushing plant at Pelican Point which not only make slack and lump lime, but furnish some fluxing material to Geneva and supply the coal industry with quantities of rock dust. The crushed rock is also used for whiting, roadstone and lime production. (Utah Mining Association, "Operational and Economic Review, August 1967, page 90)

Cement Overview

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 Co. 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)

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, 2/30/1910 p. 23)

Tooele County Limestone/Dolomite Plants

1918:
Western Pacific completed the Ellerbeck/Dolomite branches in 1918 to serve limestone quarries at Dolomite and Flux. (LeMassena, p. 269) The Ellerbeck Branch connected with the WP main line at Ellerbeck, and terminated at Flux, 3.7 miles from Ellerbeck. A spur leaves the Ellerbeck Branch at Dollomite Junction and terminates at Dollomite. This spur is shown as the 'K' Line, and was built in 1917-1918.

June 1958:
An article in the WP Mileposts magazine stated that the dolomite (lime rock) traffic from the plant at Marblehead began in June 1958, replacing lime rock that had been shipped to U. S. Steel's Geneva plant from Illinois. The name Marblehead comes from the name of the company in Illinois, which located a deposit in Utah, and created a subsidiary company for its new operations. The reason may have been either to reduce the transportation distance and/or charges, or if there was a problem with the deposit in Illinois, such as depletion or degredation of the deposit there. The branch is apparently unused at this point in early 2006, since Geneva Steel has closed. The article in WP Mileposts mentioned a rather large deposit at the Marblehead location, and other uses, including railroad ballast. (Thom Anderson)

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)

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)

Keigley Limestone Quarry

1988:
During 1988, Geneva Steel's limstone quarry at Keigley, west of Santaquin in Utah County, mined 340,000 tons of limestone. Geneva used limestone as a flux in its steel making process. (Flux helps materials mix together easier.) (Deseret News, January 29, 1989)

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