Lafarge

Lafarge is a French industrial company specialising in four major products: cement, construction aggregates, concrete and gypsum wallboard. In 2010 the company was the world's second-largest cement manufacturer by mass shipped behind Holcim. Lafarge was founded in 1833 by Joseph-Auguste Pavin de Lafarge in Le Teil , to exploit the limestone quarry in Mont Saint-Victor between Le Teil and Viviers. The limestone is white and argillaceous, and yielded an eminently hydraulic lime. In 1864 Lafarge signed its first international contract for the delivery of 110,000 tonnes of lime to the Suez Canal... construction project. It developed calcium aluminate cements. It was also an early pioneer in the production of white Portland cement, still made at the company's original Le Teil plant. In 1919, a public company was formed, named "Société anonyme des chaux et ciments de Lafarge et du Teil." In 1980, it joined with the Belgian coal, coke and fertilizer company Coppée to become SA Lafarge Coppée. Lafarge purchased a plant from the National Gypsum Company in early-1987. Ten years later, it bought Redland plc, a leading British quarry operator.
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