Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/632397
AGGREGATES MANAGER / February 2016 15 after we bought the plant in 2009," says Steve Redenbaugh, area production manager. "But we put in a camera at the jaw crusher, so now, instead of three plant operators, there's just one in the processing plant. We reduced the work- force from 24 to 16, but we're doing the same tonnages out the gate. We've been running between 450,000 and 500,000 tons a year." Much of the equipment in use at the quarry today was there when Martin Marietta bought it. "The haul trucks are 35 years old," Kuball says. "Our pit loader is probably nine years old, and our com- mercial loader is 10 to 11 years old." Upgrades and equipment weren't the only things that needed to be addressed when the operation was acquired; it needed a good cleanup and some organization as well. "We've done a lot of housekeeping in appearance and a lot of cleanup at this location," Reden- baugh notes. "We cleaned up old scraps and weeds, got rid of old trailers, and doubled the size of the crew shack. The main thing we've done here is to bring the plant up from the 1950s to modern technology. At that time, they were using hand wrenches to change out screens. Now, they're doing it with cordless wrenches." Daily operations Production starts with two drills — a large downhole hammer drill and a smaller drill. Though the quarry does its own drilling, it hires Buckley Powder to do all the blast- ing. A small blast shack provides protec- tion for anyone in the area during a blast. After the blast, haul trucks transfer the material to the primary crusher and then to the primary plant. Average total daily production at the primary plant ranges from 350 to 400 tons per hour. Martin Marietta's Guernsey Quarry, located in southeastern Wyoming, mines five different geological rock formations.