Method and apparatus for the thermal treatment of finely divided material for the calcination of cement wherein the material is preheated in a multi-stage heat exchanger and later passed to a calcining furnace. The material is partly deacidified in a pre-calcination zone before entering the sintering furnace where further calcining and sintering of the material is completed. A portion of the feed material is treated with rapidly oxidizing fuel components in a pre-calcination zone in a first stage and with more slowly oxidizing fuel components in a second stage, the more slowly oxidizing fuel components being a mixture of relatively fine granulated fuel particles of substantially uniform size and larger particles of briquetted or coarsely broken fuel.