The project management strategy team is a link in the process that parent company, Switzerland-based Holcim Ltd, is using to decide - in the first quarter of next year, at the earliest - whether to build a plant at Weston.
Holcim has two options to meet a growing demand for cement in New Zealand - building a new cement plant at Weston, or upgrading its Westport Cape Foulwind plant and importing cement.
For some members of the strategy team, yesterday's visit was the first time they had seen the Holcim-owned sites involved in the Weston option.
The sites include the Waihao Forks property, which has coal reserves, the plant site just west of Weston, the limestone quarry near the plant site, a coal quarry at Ngapara and a sand pit at Windsor.
The project represents a large investment for Holcim - estimated at up to $500 million for the new plant and quarries, a new ship and distribution network.
Carrying out the investigative and design work is a team which reports to the project management strategy team, the link to the Holcim New Zealand board of directors.
The New Zealand board will, in turn, make a recommendation to the Holcim parent company, whose board will make the final decision.
