Kenya’ West Pokot cement project, the Sh 640 billion "ultra-modern" cement plant, which was to be constructed in cattle-rustling prone Sebit region, has not started, three years after the Government granted exclusive mining rights to Cemtech Ltd, a subsidiary of India’s Sanghi Group. Apart from the cosmetic bush clearing that was carried out in June last year when the Prime Minister Raila Odinga laid a foundation for the construction of the plant, nothing, so far, is worth smiling for by area residents, whose livelihoods are pegged on the plant takeoff. Approximately 700 people were expected to be absorbed directly in the new plant, and 1,000 indirectly. The slow progress of the project also means Kenya may be locked out of the growing demand for cement in South Sudan. The newly created state can easily be accessed by road from West Pokot.Macmahon Holdings Ltd has announced its subsidiary company in Nigeria has been awarded a seven year contract for quarrying operations near Calabar in Nigeria. The contract for United Cement Company of Nigeria Ltd (UniCem), a joint venture between Lafarge, Holcim and Flour Mills of Nigeria, will be Macmahon’s second operation in the country. The new contract is to undertake quarrying operations at UniCem’s 2.5 million tpa cement manufacturing plant in Mfamosing, about 40 km north east of Calabar in Cross River State, Nigeria. Commencing in January 2012, the contract is expected to generate revenue in the order of US$18 million/year. Macmahon will take over the existing operations, which UniCem has conducted since 2008. The broad scope of work includes overburden removal and the drilling, blasting, excavation and delivery of limestone, marl and shale from the quarry to the cement plant crushers. The total overburden and feed material movement is in the order of 5 million tpa.