Swiss firm acquires Utah's Utelite Corp.

LafargeHolcim in the United States has acquired Utelite Corp. of Coalville, a producer of expanded shale lightweight aggregates.

“For many years, Utah has been a dynamic and growing market, and the Utelite Corp. has been part of this growth,” said Jay Moreau, CEO of U.S. Aggregates & Construction Materials, a division of LafargeHolcim. “We’re pleased to welcome the Utelite employees to our family and look forward to their experience and bench strength reinforcing our aggregates operations in the area.”

Founded in 1962, Utelite serves customers across the western United States and western Canada. Utelite aggregates are produced at a facility 36 miles east of Salt Lake City, where shale is mined and heated to over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point it “puffs up” to produce a soil enhancer along with many other uses. Utelite says it has more than 60 years of proven and probable reserves of the raw material used to make its product.

Utelite’s Coalville operation and empolyees will become part of LafargeHolcim’s Aggregate Industries Mountain Region.

LafargeHolcim, with world headquarters in Switzerland, is one of the world’s largest building products companies, with over 67,000 employees. It distributes brands such as ACC, Aggregate Industries, Ambuja Cement, Disensa, Firestone Building Products, Geocycle, Holcim and Lafarge in four building segments: cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates and other products. In the United States, LafargeHolcim owns close to 350 sites in 43 states and employs 7,000 people.