Rudheath Lodge, Sibelco’s new site in the UK has officially opened. The new site, which will produce four silica grades mainly for the sports & leisure and construction industries, was introduced by the local site management team.
The ‘live’ site opening
was first on the agenda. A small group of people were welcomed on site. The tour started with a ribbon cutting and welcome speech by Mark James, UK Country Manager. Next, the attendees were invited to a guided tour led by Kaz Jinks, the Rudheath Lodge Site Manager, to get an extensive introduction to the new site and its way of working.
Fun fact: the new site has two towers named after Sibelco employees, Richard Davey and Andy Neil who have been with the company for 51 and 38 years respectively. Richard and Andy led the engineering side of the site design and construction. Both Richard and Andy now have their personalised Sibelco towers!
was planned for the next day. Adam Daniels, Area & Country Operations Manager, and John van Put, Group COO & CTIO, kicked off the meeting by recognizing the hard work done by Kaz Jinks, who is one of the few female site managers at Sibelco.
“I’m very happy we have another female site manager at Sibelco. I hope that in the coming years we will be able to welcome more women to senior operational roles. Kaz and her team have done a great job in getting the site ready in such a short time following the grant of the operating permit.”
John van Put
EVP Operations Europe & Chief Industrial Officer
The audience was then introduced to the new Rudheath Lodge site by Adam, Kaz and Michael Davies, Operations Manager, with photo and video materials, mimicking a real-life experience of entering the site. The site was designed with a lot of respect for the surrounding area, since it’s encircled by trees and other natural boundaries so as to not to disturb the peace and quiet of the neighbourhood. In fact, the neighbours who live opposite the site have said that they can hardly tell there is a quarry there at all!
Restoring the Chelford site
The Sibelco UK team is currently also working on
the restoration of our Chelford site. Our previous mineral deposit is now being turned into a natural area with three new wildlife-friendly lakes. The Chelford example clearly shows Sibelco’s sustainability approach when it comes to restoring mining areas.
