Limestone of differing chemical composition is freely available in the quarries owned by CN. This limestone is carefully blended before being crushed. Red mineral is added to the limestone at the crushing stage to provide consistent chemical composition of the raw materials. Once these materials have been crushed and subjected to online chemical analysis they are blended in a homogenized stockpile. A bucket wheel reclaimer is used to recover and further blend this raw material mix before transfer to the raw material grinding mills.

Transport belt conveyor transfers the blended raw materials to hammer and ball mills where it is ground. The chemical analysis is again checked to ensure excellent quality control of the product. The resulting ground and dried raw meal is sent to a homogenizing and storage silo for further blending before being burnt in the kilns.

The heat required to produce temperatures of 1,800°C at the flame is supplied by ground and dried petroleum coke and/or fuel oil. The Petcoke is imported via the companies' internal wharf, stored and then ground in dedicated mills. Careful control of the mills ensures optimum fineness of the Petcoke and excellent combustion conditions within the kilns system.

The raw meal is fed into the top of a preheater tower equipped with four cyclone stages. As it falls, the meal is heated up by the rising hot gases and reaches 800°C. At this temperature, the meal dehydrates and partially decarbonizes. The meal then enters a sloping rotary kiln, which is heated by a 1,800°C flame, which completes the burning process of the meal. The meal is heated to a temperature of at least 1,450°C. At this temperature the chemical changes required to produce cement clinker are achieved. The dry process kiln is shorter than the wet process kiln and is the most fuel-efficient method of cement production available.

The clinker discharging from the kiln is cooled by air to a temperature of 70°C above ambient temperature and heat is recovered for the process to improve fuel efficiency.
Some of the air from the cooler is dedusted and supplied to the coal grinding Plant. The remaining air is used as preheated secondary air for the main combustion burner and tertiary air duct for combustion chamber in the kiln. Clinker is analyzed to ensure consistent product quality as it leaves the cooler.
Metal conveyors transport the clinker to closed storage areas.

Dedicated electrostatic precipitators and bags filters dedust the air and gases used in the Clinker Production Line Process. In this way, 99.9% of the dust is collected before venting to the atmosphere. All dust collected is returned to the process.