Pit & Quarry, February 2013

O ne hundred kilometers north of Vancouver sits one of the most significant mineral reserves in all of Canada For more than 100 years companies such as Lafarge North America have pulled energy resources building materials and precious metals from Texada Island Working from two pits with about 80 people Lafarge North America extracts high quality limestone aggregates from an area where gold was mined a century ago and iron was harvested until the 1970s The company also imports coal gypsum and slag by barge to a deep sea port on the island and in turn exports its products via ships to overseas customers Between our aggregate and limestone plants well move about 3 million tons of material this year said General Manager Shawn Holloway Limestone production is by far the largest part of our operations because the quality is so good Its used in everything from cement texada Quarrying operator Mick Pansich sorts and sizes white rock limestone with this Komatsu PC300LL hydraulic excavator and chemical plants to agriculture and medical fields Some even goes into products such as makeup and toothpaste Each customer has its own preference for the color and gradation so we sort it out during the processing Processing the limestone known as white rock at Texada Quarrying involves several steps After blasting oversize pieces are reduced using equipment such as its Komatsu PC300LL excavator equipped with a hydraulic breaker Because were dealing with tough conditions we believe it is important to have a machine that can stand up to the challenge explained Maintenance Manager Dan Anderson The PC300LL is actually a forestry machine It has the advantage of a PC300 excavator upper structure on top of a high wide heavy duty PC400 size undercarriage Its proven to be a good fit We have a few thousand hours on it and its been relatively maintenance free Doesnt miss a beat Lafarge North Americas Texada Quarrying operation worked with SMS Equipments Vancouver branch when it purchased the PC300LL about four years ago Last year it added a 90 ton HD785 7 rigid frame haul truck to move materials on site The limestone is fairly lightweight after its been crushed so in order to get 90 tons on the HD785 we have to pile it fairly high Anderson OperATIONs Texada Island An abundance of high quality limestone drives Lafarge North Americas Texada Island operations EditEd by darrEn Constantino Although Lafarge North America Texada Quarrying is already mining material from as deep as 500 ft the site has vast reserves with plenty of material to last well into the future dan anderson is maintenance manager for Lafarge north americas texada Quarrying operation 18 pIT QUArrY February 2013 www pitandquarry com