Technology Review

Revision: 12 September 2006

Authors: Greg Fenrick & Jack Caldwell

Table of Contents

From: Aggregates Manager.

INTRODUCTION

By any definition a pit or a quarry is a mine. Thus almost everything about mining is relevant to pits & quarries. Yet there are aspects and issues unique to pits & quarries, and we deal with some of them in this review.

WEB SITES

A website devoted to all aspects and issues associated with pits & quarries is www.pitandquarry.com.

This site is a comprehensive source of information about gravel pits and quarries in the United States. Here you will find, amongst other things, a full listing of the over 300 companies that own and operate pits and quarries, the name and location of the facilities they operate, the products they produce, and the suppliers of their needs. One part of the site that intrigued me is the self-guided course on the basics of pit and quarry design, operation, and closure. The course is easy to use, fun to read, and informative. You will leave the screen more knowledgeable than when you enter and it is free to the casual user.

Aggregates Manager is the e-magazine for aggregate professionals. This is a great source of interesting and informative information regarding pits & quarries & aggregates. I particularly liked their news and the Rock Law articles.

COMPUTER CODES

A computer code that appears to facilitate all aspects of pit and quarry investigation, design, and operation is named unsurprisingly Quarry. Here is the supplier’s description:

Quarry has everything you need for quarry design and planning. To lay out quarry infrastructure, there are a multitude of 3D CAD functions plus a set of semi-automated pit design tools to build a surface model of the Quarry 'as-mined' face at any point in time. You will find that you can modify the bench widths and heights and automatically include ramps in your design. For those in hilly terrains, you can easily design to an existing seam or topographic surface and produce bench by bench volumes and grades from the proposed quarry.

Earthworks Corporation has the RM Manager code. It is described thus:

Earthworks RM Manager is an easy-to-use, menu driven system for monitoring and controlling the day-to-day operation of limestone quarries supplying raw material for cement manufacture. It has been designed for use by production staff with a good basic knowledge of quarry operations but does not assume skills in surveying, geology, mine planning or computing. The user is guided through a straightforward set of menu choices with online help at every stage. Menu choices are filled in automatically as processing proceeds so that the system can be operated with minimal training. Alternatively, full access to data files is provided by means of browse buttons so that more experienced staff can use the advanced options. Results may be output automatically to spreadsheets or customized graphs and tables.

SUPPLIERS

If you look in the Infomine.com databases you will find many suppliers of mining equipment. Most of these suppliers would be as happy to supply your pit or quarry as any other mining operation. Here are some of them:

Blasting Dyno Noble

Blasting Orica

Cutting of stones in quarry Daigh Company, Inc.

Drilling Atlas Copco

Drills Savona Equipment Ltd.

Equipment Rock Systems.

Monitoring Instruments Measurement Devices Limited

Plant & Quarry Equipment TBF Thompson (Garvagh) Ltd.

Conveyor Belts Georgia Duck

Quarry Operations N.Tribe & Associates Ltd.

Quarry Site Management Tools for Limestone Quarries

Earthworks Corporation

From the TBF Thompson Group.

I am told that Breaker Technology Inc. is a premium supplier of equipment to the pit & quarry market. Decide for yourself by examining their website. Be aware they are part of a larger group, the Astec International Aggregate and Mining Group whose purpose is “to grow and prosper by designing, manufacturing and selling the most innovative, productive and reliable equipment for building and restoring the world’s infrastructure, coupled with unparalleled customer service.” No demure claim this!

REFERENCE GUIDES

The only guide I will refer to here is the one that I found most interesting both because of its style, format, and approach as because of the location for which it is intended: the Yukon. I refer to the excellent volume, Development & Reclamation Standards for Yukon Pits & Quarries. Many others guides specific to particular states are available through a web search using the keywords “your-state-name pit or quarry regulations”

LAWS

In Ontario, Canada there is the Aggregate Resources Act. The purposes of the act include: manage aggregate resources; require rehabilitation of land from which aggregates are mined; and minimize adverse impact on the environment in respect of aggregate operations. And, as you would expect, the act requires you to obtain a licence before you develop a pit or quarry and mine for aggregate.

CODES OF PRACTICE

Alberta, Canada has a comprehensive 2004 Code of Practice for Pits. It basically sets out how you will operate, report, and reclaim.

PUBLICATIONS

The premier journal on the industry is available from the site already mentioned, www.pitandquarry.com. And there is the e-copy of the highly informative Aggregates Manager.

Fenner Duck

ORGANIZATIONS

The Ontario Aggregate Resource Corporation site provides information for the holders of the 2,700 licenses and 2,900 permits issued in Ontario to the aggregate industry. But the information is of interest and possible use to all in the aggregate, pit, and quarry industry. For example, I very much enjoyed and liked their publications, including well-produced volumes on pit and quarry rehabilitation.

At this site is a long list of aggregate and construction resources associations, not all having to do with pits or quarries (sadly, none of the links I tried were operative).

Rock Systems Inc. Processing Equipment

Equipment - Conveyors
Conveyors

Equipment - Hoppers & Feeders
Hoppers & Feeders

Equipment - Screening & Seperating
Screening & Separating

Crushing Equipment
Crushing Equipment

Washing Equipment
Washing Equipment

Misc. Equipment
Misc. Equipment