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PPC - Pretoria Portland Cement Company Limited - Major Environmental Project Planned for PPC De Hoek Factory PRETORIA PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY LIMITED Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa (Registration number 1892/000667/06) ("PPC" or "the company") JSE code: PPC ISIN code: ZAE000096475 Major Environmental Project Planned for PPC De Hoek Factory PPC is pleased to announce that in line with its commitment to improving the environment around the communities in which it operates countrywide and adhering to international environmental best practices, it will undertake a major project to reduce dust emissions at the De Hoek factory in the Western Cape. Although current dust emission levels are not regarded as a health threat, reduced emissions will further improve the air quality for both employees and residents and ensure PPC complies more than satisfactorily with new legislation. The estimated cost of the project is around R70m and it will be completed by 2011. PPC, the country`s leading cement producer, operates two production facilities in the Western Cape, one at De Hoek near Picketberg and the other at Riebeeck West. De Hoek the larger of the two facilities produces around 800 000 tons of cement per year for the Western Cape market from two rotary cement kilns. The kilns are currently fitted with electrostatic precipitators, older technology, which uses electric power to separate dust particles from the kiln exhaust gas, enabling cement plants to operate with low dust emissions. Dr.Orrie Fenn, PPC`s Chief Operating Officer, says "the precipitators will be replaced with state of the art bag-filter technology where the kiln gas is de- dusted in a better way similar to a very large vacuum cleaner." Modern bag filters are much more efficient at removing dust from gas, with the dust concentration in the cleaned gas seldom exceeding 20 milligrams per cubic metre. "This is well below the level of 50 milligrams per cubic metre required by International and European Standards and will comfortably meet the expected requirements of the new South African Air Quality Act," says Fenn. The engineering design for the new bag filters is currently underway. The expected lead time for delivery of the equipment is approximately one year and it is planned to have the new de-dusting systems installed and fully operational by 2011. Until then, PPC will optimise the current de-dusting equipment to ensure that the lowest possible emission levels are maintained. Fenn says that "PPC is committed to working closely with the authorities and communities in all the areas where we operate to ensure that environmental impacts from ongoing operations are kept to a minimum. In addition we seek to actively improve the lives of our employees and local communities by investing in upliftment projects and education." The De Hoek project follows similar successful projects carried out at PPC`s lime manufacturing operation in the Northern Cape where R20 million was spent on bag filter technology, and at PPC`s Slurry, Jupiter, Hercules and Port Elizabeth cement plants where over R40 million has been spent to date on improving environmental conditions. 13 August 2008 Sponsor Merrill Lynch South Africa (Pty) Limited Date: 13/08/2008 15:30:01 Supplied by www.sharenet.co.za Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited (`JSE`). The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or completeness of the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers, employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature, howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on, information disseminated through SENS.
