Special Buxton Lime and Cement
What is so special about Buxton Lime and Cement?
Buxton Lime's Tunstead site is one of the largest limestone quarries in Europe, producing over 6m tonnes of stone a year. The pure limestone at Tunstead is used onsite and at nearby Hindlow for the manufacture of high quality quicklime, hydrated lime and milk of lime products.
At Tunstead, the stone forms part of a highly integrated business where the processing of limestone, lime and cement are intrinsically linked, enabling the site to be operated with great efficiency and resulting in a remarkably low wastage factor of less than 1%.
Quality Assured Products
Buxton Lime has a long established reputation for high quality products and we place special emphasis on maintaining quality assurance. We operate ISO 9001 quality management systems and are regularly audited by BSI.
Production monitoring is backed by an in-house team of chemists and technicians who use the latest analytical techniques to test the quality of some 50 different lime and cement products in our laboratories.
Works laboratory
Our long-established works laboratories, chemists and technicians use a wide range of analytical techniques to control the quality of some 50 different lime and cement based products to the required specifications.
Test methods used cover a range of specifications including BS 6463, BS EN 459-2, BS EN 12485, BS EN 196, BS EN 413-2, BS 4551, plus a series of methods developed by Buxton Lime and Cement. The in house methodology available to us includes XRF (X-ray Fluorescence), AA (atomic absorption spectrometry), Automatic carbon/sulphur analysis, automatic thermo gravimetric analysis, ion selective electrode and classical wet chemistry methods.
Research and development
Our research and development department provides technical support for our production and commercial teams and assists our customers in any technical issues relating to the use of lime and cement based products. This includes product selection, product and process optimisation and development of bespoke products.
The team also carry out market-focused research to continuously develop new lime and cement based products and to refine existing products for new markets.
Engineering design
A team of dedicated professional engineers are based at Buxton and are responsible for the engineering development of all our processing plant and also provide a free consultancy service to all our customers.
Typically we can help with the design of new handling and processing equipment to ensure that best practice is incorporated in to all new plants. By doing this customers can avoid costly blockages, breakdowns, spillages or prolonged commissioning periods. In addition, this service is available to existing plants for problem solving or major upgrades.
Environmental
Buxton Lime and Cement's operations at Tunstead and Hindlow comply with the rigorous demands of the ISO 14001 environmental management standard. The quarry, lime kilns and cement plant are regulated by the Environment Agency's emissions monitoring programme.
We are firmly committed to meet and where appropriate exceed applicable legal requirements, regulations and standards. Millions of pounds and many hours of staff time have been invested in reducing emissions and minimising waste and we have a programme of continuous environmental improvements.
Our policy is to use rail transport whenever practical to reduce the environmental impact of distributing lime, roadstone and cement to our bulk customers. Approximately 40% of output travels by rail. New rail despatch facilities have been installed at Tunstead for loading bulk cement wagons and new rail receiving depots have been opened in Leeds, Walsall and London. Typically each train carries over 1,500 tonnes of product, which takes a considerable strain off the local and national road network.
Furthermore, an ongoing programme of infrastructure improvements, dry-stone walling, landscaping and tree planting is changing the face of our Tunstead and Hindlow sites. Where possible, we encourage the bio-diversity of wildlife in and around our landholdings.
The lime kilns and cement plant are closely regulated by the Environment Agency under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations. Comprehensive monitoring systems ensure that both sites fully comply with the requirements of their permits.
Environmental standards
The Buxton lime kilns and cement plant are closely regulated by the Environment Agency under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations. Comprehensive monitoring systems ensure that both sites fully comply with the requirements of their permits. This includes restoration of the old cement plant site at Tunstead.
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Community
Buxton Lime and Cement has always played an active role in the local communities in which we work. We strive to be a good neighbour by regularly consulting with community groups and supporting community projects and events.
We have supported many projects - from major sponsorships and donations for Buxton Opera House and the Buxton campus of the University of Derby to more modest support for local flower festivals and well dressings. Buxton Lime and Cement will continue to provide support for similar projects which bring benefits to local communities.
See the range of Buxton Cement products and Buxton Lime products

