Portrait

KFN is the only producer of quicklime products in Switzerland. The natural limestone that we have been mining for more than a century at the Elggis mountain in the Swiss canton of Glarus is 98 % pure calcium carbonate. Thanks to a geological oddity, in the Swiss canton of Glarus the oldest sedimented lime layers are to be found on the surface. They are the ones with the largest degree of purity – a considerable success factor of our KFN quicklime products. Each year we produce roughly 90,000 metric tons of them for our customers coming from traditional as well as nascent industries. We are linked with them by our passion for pure quality that is to be found both in our production process and in the natural quicklime itself. 

Mining for lime demands a high degree of expertise. Only with the knowledge and a feeling for the natural limestone you can sensibly mine lime. Which also explains our strong links to our location. We treasure and maintain our relations to the Netstal village, the Glarus community and to the Swiss canton of the same name, relations that have been strengthened over the many years of our existence. It is our aim to successfully continue producing lime products here in Netstal, being responsible for all the humans living here and for the benefit of all.

Its name alone is history. The word calcium, as the German word for lime, "Kalk", come from the Latin "calx". This term was used, inter alia, to just mean "stone", the ancient Romans used it to describe the natural limestone. Today, we use the word also to describe KFNs refined quicklime and slaked lime, also called calcium hydrate, that are used for numerous industrial purposes.

Lime is one of mankind’s oldest raw materials. Archaeological findings in eastern Turkey prove that knowledge of how to mine and process lime was put into practice already 14,000 years ago. The Egyptian pyramids were built from worked limestone blocks and jointed with lime mortar. As was a large part of the Great Wall of China, standing on soil that was solidified using lime. As far as mining and refining of lime is concerned, it was the ancient Romans who first developed a professional industry. Even the job of the lime burner was known by the antique master builders. While part of this knowledge was forgotten in the Middle Ages, it was the alchemists who re-discovered the qualities of lime again. In the 19^th century, the professional burning of lime began in Schwanden in the Swiss canton of Glarus. In 1900, the lime quarry of Elggis in Netstal was opened. The history of our “Chalchi”, or KFN, began.

Roughly one in every five Swiss francs KFN spends on renovation or a new building project is invested in environment protection measures. These investments include, for example, a charging and dedusting facility for the furnaces, measures to prevent noise emissions, a new furnace concept using a high-performance direct current regenerative furnace and a new waste water treatment facility including sludge treatment. A responsible use of resources and savings on energy and the CO₂-emissons also played a significant role in the construction of the new pre-crushing-, gravel conditioning- and filler grinding-plants, of the laboratory buildings, the storage facility, the new office building and the hydrating plant in combination with new central packaging and palleting plant.