Charah, Diversified Minerals team on pozzolan for California market

Charah Solutions Inc. will open a facility using patented grinding technologies to mill supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) at a Diversified Minerals Inc. processing and terminal site in Oxnard, Calif., 60 miles outside Los Angeles.

“Oxnard is an ideal location for us to serve concrete customers throughout southern California and along the West Coast. The opening of this additional facility represents an important step in our expansion nationwide,” says Charah CEO Scott Sewell. “[It] will help stabilize the West Coast market, where [SCM] availability has traditionally been inconsistent.”

The operation will use technology Charah acquired last year from SCB International, and thus far deployed at New York and Texas sites. The process entails installation of grinding mills at a fraction of the cost of competing technologies, and can be scaled up or down to meet market demands—especially those rooted in limited fly ash, pozzolan or other SCM sources. The Oxnard facility will operate in partnership with Diversified Minerals, a supplier of standard and custom blend cement and concrete products. It will receive natural pozzolan by truck and rail, then deploy Charah Solutions’ grinding technology to produce a concrete-grade additive marketed under the brand MultiPozz.

“Fly ash is becoming more difficult to source in California, which is forcing the construction industry to look for viable alternatives,” notes Diversified Minerals CEO Jim Price. “Natural pozzolan and other SCM that meet ASTM specifications are generating very high interest. With Charah Solutions’ resources and DMI’s strategic partnership with the only active pozzolan mine in southern California, we are the first to bring these products to market.”

“This is great news for Los Angeles and surrounding markets where the supply of SCM is greatly constrained,” affirms Charah Vice President of Byproduct Sales Scott Ziegler. “We now will be able to receive and deliver pozzolan by truck and rail consistently year-round without seasonality or outages, and can easily scale and increase production as the market develops.”