Pit & Quarry, January 2018

JEFF HEINEMANN Sandvik Mining Rock Technology in conjunction with Dyno Nobel recently hosted the 12th annual Quarry Academy seminar in San Antonio Sandviks Jeff Heinemann took a moment to reflect on the origin and evolution of this educational event which has provided aggregate producers opportunities to absorb ample knowledge on aggregate processing that positions them to operate more efficiently How did Quarry Academy first come to be and how has this event effectively grown over the years It was tough when we started out because producers were training their own employees And then the downturn in the economy happened We weathered that really well but during those lean years we were lucky if we had 60 attendees because everyone was drawing back Ideally we want to be at about 135 attendees each year We were ready to discontinue it at one point but we knew this education was needed How do you budget for it when theres a downturn in the economy The people who organize the event said we believe in this We asked ourselves what we could do to help producers really refine some of the things theyre doing Quarry Academy is about doing things more efficiently Thats what our education is all about We take a lot of pride in this event We really go out of our way to make it non commercial The last thing we want to do to producers is ask them to pay to come and then talk about equipment the whole time Thats not what Quarry Academy is about Its about process improvement Quarry Academy is unique in that it essentially covers aggregate production from start to finish over the course of three days Whats the thought behind structuring the education in this fashion By covering drilling blasting screening and more we feel we are one of the few if not the only company in conjunction with Dyno Nobel as well as Volvo whose representatives Vice President Sandvik Mining Rock Technology Coming in April is Mining Academy an event from the organizers of the Quarry Academy seminar that will be held in Branson Missouri serve as guest speakers to really represent the whole value chain All that really matters is that cost at the scale house Thats what Quarry Academy is all about analyzing how can we affect every process along the value chain A number of the processing concepts discussed revolve around change something aggregate producers are often reluctant to make Why should producers be open to changing a process that might not necessarily be broken This is an industry that was really not too excited about change Say youre working for a large company or youre a quarry manager and things are going well as is and a salesperson comes in with a better mousetrap But yours is working Why would you change The adoption of newer technology can be very difficult We as vendors need to monetize that technology for them If we go in and say we can save you X cents per ton and we can prove it and guarantee it and heres the data now thats real The aggregate industry is obviously trending older but you drew a rather young crowd to this latest Quarry Academy seminar The demographic has changed over the years The first few years there was an older crowd but the demographic has definitely gotten younger We are seeing that shift PHOTOS COURTESY OF SANDVIK MINING ROCK TECHNOLOGY 78 PIT QUARRY January 2018 pitandquarry com