Description

The ever increasing deficit in housing supply in Nigeria which is estimated at over sixteen million {16,000,000} units and the need for the construction of other important infrastructure if the country is to meet up with the vision 20:2020 project of becoming amongst the top 20 economies in the world by 2020 continues to drive the need to granite, sand and cement essential construction raw materials.

SAND

Sharps sand are coastal and riverine areas. Niger delta areas like rivers, Edo and Delta have a stronghold of the business. Lagos enjoys the pride of place as the leading location for highest use of sand due to the massive road projects, the housing boom in Ibeju-Lekki peninsula, Badagry and other fast springing population and industrial centres. Sand is vital for human habit and survival, industrial and social development, and for meeting the consumption need of our rapidly growing population.

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland. There are two types of sand which are frequently sought for. They are sharp and soft sand.

They are used for various purposes in the construction of buildings. Equally, the types attract different prices depending on what you want.

CEMENT

Cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens as the cement dries and also reacts with carbon dioxide in the air dependently, and can bind other materials together.Cement is the best known binding material. Over the period of time, different varieties of Cement have been prepared to accommodate all needs. Portland cement is the most commonly used Cement and all other variants are derived from Portland cement.

Following are the types of Portland Cement Ordinary Portland Cement {Type I},Modified Portland Cement, Rapid Hardening or High Early Strength Portland Cement (Type III), Quick Setting Cement, Low Heat Portland Cement (Type IV), Sulphate Resistant Portland Cement (Type V), Water Repellent Portland Cement, Water Proof Portland Cement, High Alumina Cement,Portland Slag Cement, Air Entraining Portland Cement (Type I-A, II-A, III-A), Pozzolana Portland Cement, Supersulphated Cement, Masonry Cement and Expansive Cement.

Nigeria cement production capacity is between an estimated 26 million tons and 28 million tons per annum and the industry has witnessed 95.6 per cent growth in the span of 8 years, beginning 2005 to 2012.

GRANITE

Primary aggregates are materials extracted directly from the ground in quarries or pits. They can be either sand and gravel, or hard rock. Hard rock deposits are quarried from a fresh face and broken by mechanical means into aggregate. Geologically they can be igneous rocks such as granite or basalt; sedimentary rocks such as limestone or sandstone; or metamorphic rocks such as quartzite.

As aggregates, they are often referred to as crushed rock or by their individual geological names. Explosives will need to be used to break the rock face into pieces and often the rock will pass through several stages of crushing and screening to create the final product.

It should be noted that the different sizes of granite aggregates can be used for different purposes. They are used to achieve strength and durability in the construction industry. 3 ¼, 1/2 and 7/8 are usually used in the construction of residential accommodation.

To achieve strength especially in high rise building, dust and rice are usually mixed with cement to produce strong concrete slabs. They are also used in the production of poles used in the power industry.

In the construction of roads, dust, rice and ½ are mixed together in the right proportion to get the desired strength and durability.

The 3 ¼ and ½ inch sizes is the most sorted sizes because of the several uses of these sizes.

Lagos, the largest market for granite chips in the country, is not an igneous environment where granite could be found, all the real estate developers, contractors and Civil Engineering and Construction companies gets their granite need from nearby towns.

Granite is usually priced per ton and one ton equals 1,000 KG. Prospective clients could be charged based ex-site delivery {that is the clients would take care of transportation of the product} or quoted inclusive of transportation to the site of the prospective client.

The average ex-factory price of granite in Nigeria is around N 2,200/ ton.