Pit & Quarry, February 2016

PORTABLE PLANTS together with the assistance of Midwest Mine Services a local contractor A Telsmith 30x55 crusher is the quarry plants first processing touchpoint for the limestone Cardinal Aggregate mines Once material is crushed there its conveyed over about 1200 ft to a Deister Machine Co 6x20 triple deck scalping screen that produces 1s 2s and 304s A 1515 Hazemag impact crusher is part of the plant as well Oversized material is processed in a Pioneer vertical shaft impactor and a bivi TEC 6x20 two deck screen and an 8x24 Terex Simplicty screen complete the plant Two Caterpillar 988 wheel loaders and a 70000 lb class hydraulic rock breaker are key pieces of equipment as well According to Miller the quarry is one component that has helped MBC Holdings withstand the ups and downs of the markets it serves When one market is down another wont be down quite so much A loader operator feeds a Powerscreen XR400S jaw crusher on a contract crushing job within a quarry Miller says Luckily they have not all been down at once The expansion into portable crushing helps to offset down markets Although the company doesnt recycle asphalt in Michigan it is competitive as a concrete recycler there We do some sand and gravel up there Eisel says but its 90 percent concrete We dont currently crush any asphalt in Michigan There are several guys who run around the state Over the years Eisel has learned when to primarily focus on concrete and when to process asphalt We dont bid concrete crushing in the winter anymore because you cant control the dust he says You cant run water to your plant when its 20 degrees out Some people try but we dont Eisel prefers to recycle asphalt in the winter in the Midwest market When its 15 degrees you can run asphalt and it doesnt get cakey and gooey he says When its 90 degrees it does Our plants run better in the winter crushing asphalt and asphalt producers prefer you crush in the winter because theyre trying to get their mix designs down They want you out of the way in the summer Most of our clients dont have room to have a portable crushing plant and their customer on site in the middle of June So it works out for us to do asphalt in the winter Cardinal Aggregate deploys two person crews for asphalt recycling jobs Eisel adds because the companys plants can be operated remotely Three person crews are typically deployed for concrete recycling jobs These crews include a plant operator a loader operator and a foreman who serves as a ground guy We dont run an excavator feed operation like a lot of others Eisel says We set up the plant and it never moves We bring the material to the plant and run it like a quarry operation It just works a lot better for us P Q A Leader in Mining Construction Since 1924 Slopes Tunnels Access Ventilation Shafts Initial Mine Development Highwall Stabilization Gunite Shotcrete Storage Bunkers Portals Canopies www cowin co com 205 945 1300 30 PIT QUARRY February 2016 www pitandquarry com