Cement manufacture is an industrial activity consisting of minerals processing, which is divided in three large stages:

Obtainment, preparation, and grinding of raw materials (limestone, loam, clay, shale, etc.) which provide the following mineral compounds: Calcium carbonate (CaCO3), Silicon oxide (SiO2), Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and Iron oxide (Fe2O3). A powder mixture of the minerals, called raw meal, is obtained.

Burning of the raw meal into rotary kilns until this material reaches a temperature around 1450°C, to abruptly cool it down and obtain an intermediate product called clinker.

Grinding the clinker with other products: gypsum (to control the time of set of the cement) and additions of (slag blast furnace, fly ashes, limestone, and pozzolana) in order to form the different types of cement.