A highly experienced aggregates industry professional whose expertise is drawn on by both Aggregates Europe (European Aggregates Association) and ANEPLA (Associazione Nazionale Estrattori Produttori Lapidei ed Affini, the Italian aggregates association with Confindustria), Holcim Italy’s Paolo Zambianchi talks to Aggregates Business Editor Guy Woodford about the critical importance of aggregate supply and why he is championing the use of technology to optimise primary and secondary aggregate production.
Holcim Italy’s technical director of Aggregates & Ready Mix believes that the Russian-Ukraine War and wider global geopolitical tensions have awakened politicians and policymakers to the critical importance of essential raw materials, including aggregates, and the need to secure their supply for the health of nations.
“I have seen over the last 20 years a political regression regarding the critical importance of raw materials, at a national and European level,” says Paolo Zambianchi. “After dramatic events, including the Russia-Ukraine War, perspectives are changing. The European community now understands the crucial role of raw materials as strategic resources. Without raw materials, there is nothing.”
An Italian national, Zambianchi has been in his current role since 2011 and is responsible for production, maintenance, safety, and investment at Holcim Italy’s four aggregate quarries and 22 ready-mix plants. The former produces a combined 1.3 million tonnes of aggregate and sand annually, while the latter generates up to 1.5 million cubic metres of ready-mix per year. “Holcim concentrates its operations in northern Italy,” he explains. “I am also in charge of these sites’ environmental side and their relationships with the authorities.”
Another key element of Milan-based Zambianchi’s work is securing operating permits and licenses for Holcim aggregate and ready-mix sites. This increasingly complex and challenging aspect of aggregate production has long been a focus of Aggregates Business.
“Permitting and licensing for our business is crucial. Without approvals, we won’t produce any more aggregate and ready-mix cement, and we won’t have the civilisations we have now.
“Every region and every state in Europe has to be able to guarantee the quantities and supply timing of raw materials for more than 50 years, but we are getting permits and licenses for only two to five years. It’s such a short time.”
Zambianchi says ensuring work site safety is his biggest constant challenge. “Holcim wants to achieve a fundamental target of ‘zero Injuries’. It’s a tough target we face every day. This is not just for Holcim employees; we work with many third parties.
“While Holcim is already a sustainable company, we want to reduce our CO2 footprint further and also do more to improve our circularity. We have tough targets to reach by 2030, so our transformation must be achieved in a short time.”
A keen advocate of the role of technology in modern aggregate production, Zambianchi led Holcim Italy’s involvement in the four-year, EU-funded DigiEcoQuarry project, the brainchild of ANEFA (Asociación Nacional de Empresarios Fabricantes de Áridos), one of Spain’s oldest and most reputable associations for the national extractive industries and construction products.
DigiEcoQuarry saw five pilot quarry sites (in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Portugal) with different characteristics adopt Innovative Quarrying Systems (IQS), comprising sensors, processes, tools, and methods for data capture, processing, and sharing, to provide integrated digitalised, automatic, and real-time process control for aggregate quarries.
Completed last year, the results of and conclusions from the DigiEcoQuarry project were shared by Zambianchi and other pilot leaders via in-person presentations to an independent international advisory board and other stakeholders at Aggregates Europe’s headquarters in Brussels in June this year. Each pilot site reported significant improvements in health, safety, and security, as well as in efficiency, selectivity, and profitability, while reducing environmental impact and increasing social acceptance. With DigiEcoQuarry technology now firmly embedded in each pilot site, the project offers best practice examples for aggregates processing sites in Europe and the wider world.
“Holcim’s Pioltello San Bovio sand and gravel quarry, a 400,000 tonnes a year operation near Milan, was one of the pilot sites,” explains Zambianchi. “It was exciting to be part of the DigiEcoQuarry project and to be working with so many great people. We focused on some KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] related to the environmental and efficiency aspects of production. Regarding the former, we explored ways to increase the amount of recycled water used in material production, thereby reducing the amount of freshwater required.
“We designed a system with around 80 to 90 machine sensors to add to the site’s existing automation and help the quarry team focus on how they were processing materials through crushing, screening and washing. We also focused on safety, installing new sensors on some of the site’s heavy mobile machinery and utilising artificial intelligence for stockpile measurement. We built a cloud platform where all the data was collected and analysed. It was a very interesting experience. Across the 25 or so partners involved, we had representatives from IT, software, and artificial intelligence companies.”
Firms working with Zambianchi and his Pioltello San Bovio project quarry team included, among others, Ma-estro, the Italian quarry and plant optimisation specialists, Arco, a leading Spanish industrial weighing solutions business, Sigma Cognition, a Spanish end-to-end, data-centric AI and machine learning solutions business, and Mintek, South Africa’s national mineral research organisation and one of the world’s leading technology companies specialising in mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, and related fields.
“The overall systems we and the other pilot sites chose had to be cheap and easy to install and manage, as this was linked to quarrying rather than mining. Over the four years of the project, Pioltello achieved around 10% more productivity and efficiency, cut production costs, and reduced freshwater use by 2%,” explains Zambianchi. “With ANEFA, the DigiEcoQuarry project leader, we are studying some other technology that we can test at Pioltello and the other pilot sites.”
Zambianchi is also excited about the circular economy opportunities offered by Holcim Italy’s first CDM (Construction & Demolition) waste recycling hub at Gorla Quarry in Varese, around 60 kilometres northwest of Milan. “This is a very important new development in our decarbonisation journey,” he emphasises. “The EU target for recycling CDM waste is 75% by 2030, and in Italy, we are already at 85%. It’s a big success story.”
Commenting on the current health of the Italian aggregates market, Zambianchi says: “The situation is difficult for many reasons, including high energy costs and the fallout from what is happening internationally. More positively, the European Union is investing in large-scale infrastructure projects, such as new high-speed train lines and highways, which are beneficial for companies like Holcim. As a country, Italy is also investing in infrastructure, particularly in the north of the country. We have the [Milan Cortina] Olympics in February 2026, and Holcim is giving a lot of aggregate, cement and ready-mix to construction works, including our ECOPlanet green cement. The market is very interested in how our sustainable products relate to EPDs [Environmental Product Declarations]. Enhancing sustainability in building works is a key strategy for us. Holcim Italy is focused on supplying ECOPlanet and other sustainable products to bigger infrastructure projects, as the regulations are clear around the amount of recycled and low-carbon materials that need to be used by contractors.”
Zambianchi is the proud vice chairman of Aggregates Europe’s environment committee and continues to serve on the board of ANEPLA, having previously served as the association’s president from 2014 to 2020. Under Zambianchi’s leadership, ANEPLA became a prominent association member of Aggregates Europe and launched CavaExpoTech, an annual meeting place for producers of mining goods and services and quarry entrepreneurs. Each event, held at different ANEPLA quarry member sites throughout Italy, is traditionally divided into classroom-based professional development on current industry trends, followed by both static and dynamic demonstrations of quarrying machinery and linked technology. In addition to each live event, a series of CavoExpoTech webinars is staged throughout the year. In his six years as president, Zambianchi also significantly increased ANEPLA’s membership, bringing in aggregate industry service companies, and strengthened the association’s working relationship with Confindustria, the main association representing manufacturing and service companies in Italy.
“I designed the CavoExpoTech brand and patented the name under ANEPLA. We’ve run it for ten years and it’s the reference event for quarrying in Italy,” Zambianchi proudly stresses. “We do one or two CavaExpoTech’s per year. If we host two events, based on member demand, one will be held in the north and the other in the south of Italy. We invite industry stakeholders and local politicians, and always have one quarry site day for families, with children participating in all kinds of fun activities.
“At a CavaExpoTech event last year, Caterpillar and CGT, its Italian dealer, attended with Cat Command [remote control machine solutions]. Some important politicians heard about this and were eager to try it, so they took turns operating the excavator remotely. It was very nice to see.”
A geology graduate who also holds a Master’s degree in business administration with a focus on the oil, gas, and raw materials industries, Zambianchi spent three years working in the Italian oil and gas sector before entering the aggregates industry with Holcim Italy in 2001.
“I think we need to do more with schools and universities as industry companies, and, in ANEPLA’s case, as associations, otherwise we will lose the next generation’s interest and quarrying and mining industry competencies,” notes Zambianchi. “This is why Holcim Italy has started an academy near our headquarters in Milan that teaches local schoolchildren industry knowledge and skills.”
What does Zambianchi feel are his biggest career achievements, and what does he still want to achieve in the Italian and wider European aggregates industry? “Like in a rugby match, it is impossible to win without the support of your team, and playing for each other. My team at Holcim Italy Aggregates and Ready Mix is crucial. You come to Milan, and in the last 20 years, it has undergone significant changes, with skyscrapers, subways, and buildings made from green, sustainable building materials supplied by Holcim. It’s a big transformation, and it makes me very proud. I am also proud of being the first Holcim Italy manager to receive authorisation for a CDM waste recycling hub [at Gorla Quarry]. I want this hub and Holcim Italy in general to be the reference point when it comes to recycled materials to enable sustainable construction, not just in Italy but the whole of Europe.”
