Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/945822
14 AGGREGATES MANAGER / March 2018 PLANT PROFILE instead of the thickener tank, it had an alta flow, which looks like a silo," Clifford explains. "But with the volume of water we were putting into it, it couldn't separate the fines from the water fast enough. It was too small, so we added the 40-foot thickener tank." The wash plant allows the operation to produce a multitude of materials ranging in size from non-spec aggregate base course to concrete sand, bedding sand, mortar sand, 3/8-inch reject chips, 1/2-inch rock, 1-1/2-inch rock, 1-inch to 3-inch track-out rock, and 57 rock. The portable crusher spread in the pit doesn't take up much space. It consists of a primary jaw crusher, a secondary cone crusher, and a screen. Material is fed to the jaw crusher by a loader and then circulated to the screen, with oversize going on to the secondary cone crusher and, eventually, back to the screen and into stockpiles. Plans were in place to move the crusher spread to a new location on the other side of the creek so it could mine another stretch without disturbing the Native American areas, the creek, or the flood plain. Since the spread is portable, the move was expected to take only a couple of days. The entire operation is run by a crew of only six employees, including Connor Carhart, the plant manager. Carhart worked his way up from welder to plant manager and assisted Clifford with construction of the wash plant. He attributes the Peoria Pit's success to the quality of his employees. "Each employee who works at this facility is integral to the daily operations," Carhart says. "We are fortunate to have great employees at this plant that work safe, work hard, and understand how im- portant their role in the daily operations is to the success of the site. They truly are the life-blood of the company." Addressing safety "MSHA has pretty strict safety standards, and I try to stay ahead of the curve," Palmer notes. "The workplace exam rule is changing the middle of this year. We're trying to comply with that now, as opposed to waiting until we're forced to do it. I've spoken with some MSHA inspectors, and they're still unsure of how it's going to be regulated, so there's a lot of mystery and questions." Palmer works closely with Clifford and Carhart to make sure all the employees have the training and equipment they need to do their jobs safely. They cover a different safety topic every week, ranging from housekeeping safety to lockout/ tagout refresher training. They also discuss any fatalities or serious accident alerts that MSHA releases. All the initial and annual MSHA training is handled by Palmer, whether it's new miner training, training for experienced miners, or the annual refresher training. "We go over first aid and CPR, which is very important to us," Palmer explains. "About half of our MSHA annual training is based on that, making sure everyone knows exactly what to do in case of an emergency. The rest is reviewing MSHA-related acci- dents and fatals, working on pre-shift equipment inspections, and workplace examinations. This year, for our annual The wash plant includes two Phoenix Processing attrition cells that beat all the clay out of the sand.