Pit & Quarry, October 2017
OPERATIONS Little touches like the conveyor speed wheels that enhance production are often the result of partnerships with engineers equipment suppliers and industry consultants says Albert Frei Jr Albert Jr who erected the enclosed plant over a two year period with the help of design and engineering firm M A Bielski Associates his brother Tommy and skilled labor from existing production and maintenance crews In theory there are three separate plants in there They are identical but they are isolated so they each can run independently The purpose of that is if one line goes down or if one crusher goes down the other two are running just fine Theyre not restricted by anything else Thats part of the redundancy we planned into this Three separate conveyor lines feed into the secondary tertiary plant from a surge pile the primary produces The surge pile is a combination of everything that meters into the secondary Albert Jr says We separate the three products from the surge pile We have natural fines and all of the coarse surge rock comes into the secondary In other aggregate operations a downed secondary plant puts a halt to any activity at a tertiary Albert Frei Sons does not however have that worry The really unique thing about this plant is that there are eight FMC feeders moderating and feeding the different rates of product Albert Jr says There are three HP500 Metso cone crushers inside and three 8 ft x 24 ft four deck Deister screens The three bottom decks are your traditional screens and that fourth deck gives us flexibility The design gives Albert Frei Sons the ability to make three core products plus three secondary products at a time According to Albert Jr that fourth screen deck essentially serves as the operations secondary plant Its a unique setup to say the least One day were making ballast which is a 25 in minus he says So we can run one line making 25 in and other ones are making 1 in The next day we shut down that 25 in close up that line at the touch of a button open the other one and make a 4 which is like a 2 in minus We consolidated everything in went vertical and made a secondary out of an extra deck on a screen Albert Jr adds We had to get real creative because we dont have a lot of real estate like these big massive quarries KEEPING PLANTS IN CHECK Plant automation makes the experience at both the secondary tertiary plant and the BY THE NUMBERS THE WALSTRUM QUARRY 2 Daily shifts at the quarry 22 Miles between the quarry and its nearest competitor which is significantly closer to the Denver market 300 Acres in the Walstrum Quarrys permitted boundary The property spans a total of 2000 acres 33 million The quarrys annual production tonnage 40 million The approximate number of tons mined at the Walstrum Quarry over 35 years www kpijci com pitandquarry com October 2017 PIT QUARRY 17
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