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Attendance up at Hillhead
More than 17,000 visitors attended Hillhead 2012 in the United Kingdom, a 10-percent spike from the 15,500 people who attended the trade show in 2010. This year’s show also had a record 459 exhibitors. Dates for Hillhead 2014 will be announced shortly. Keep Reading
Fairmount Minerals earns award for community service
Fairmount Minerals’ Wedron Silica sand-mining facility has earned a community relations award from the Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers (IAAP) for outstanding community involvement, according to IAAP. Wedron Silica has donated materials and loaned employees to create a 2,000-ft.-long walking path and install more than 1,000 ft. of split-rail fence at Wedron Park during a day of caring. The sand-mining facility also cleaned up two miles of highway on two different routes. Additionally, Fairmount Minerals’ Wedron Silica facility has helped fund educational programs at schools in two Illinois cities, a mobile computer lab for students in Harding, Ill., an at-risk pre-school program at an elementary school, and the traveling Lincoln Exhibit at the Ottawa Scouting Museum. Keep Reading
Track-mounted radial stacker is latest Superior conveyor
Superior Industries revealed its newest conveyor design last week in the Geotrek, a track-mounted radial stacker that can be directly linked to portable crushing and screening equipment in applications that require material stockpiling. Equipped with independent hydraulic cylinders at both the head and tail ends of the conveyor, the unit can be used as a mobile transfer or link conveyor. For smooth and steady handling during travel, Superior engineers equipped the unit with proportional track drive controls. According to Superior, the technology allows for smoother, steadier travel when the tracks are engaged. Geotrek conveyors feature the company’s powerfold design. During unfolding, the stacker’s hydraulic cylinders retract, protecting the cylinder rods from damaging dust and debris during operation. The new track-mounted stacker also comes equipped with a remote control to operate the unit’s belt and tracks. Keep Reading
Portable frac sand plant coming to market
McLanahan Corp. has engaged Cemco Inc. to produce a portable frac sand plant that offers the ability to produce two sizes of frac sand used in oil and natural gas drilling applications. The plant’s design is based on McLanahan’s Hydrosizer, which takes sand from the top while a column of water pushes upward from the bottom of the machine. The water moves at such a rate that only particles of plus 70 are carried up and over the unit, while coarser materials drop from the bottom of the Hydrosizer. The plant offers an average output of 150 tph. From the initial feed, material first reports to a sump, which pumps the sand and added water up to a cyclone. The cyclone is mounted to the Hydrosizer, which separates sand of plus 70 mesh and transports it to a system of vibrating dewatering screens. Screens dewater the sand and convert it to a stackable, removable material. Meanwhile, the minus 70 mesh sand is recycled through another system of cyclones, which again… Keep Reading
NSSGA hires vice president of membership
Pamala Bouchard joined NSSGA this week as vice president of membership. Bouchard’s job is to develop and implement the association’s annual membership recruitment and retention programs, conduct activities to promote member participation and new member orientation, and provide timely service to member and non-member requests. In addition to her direct membership responsibilities, Bouchard assumes oversight for NSSGA’s meeting planning and the association’s small producers roundtable. Keep Reading
NSSGA supporting EPA’s air quality standard proposal
NSSGA is endorsing its support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to retain the current coarse particulate national ambient air quality standard. “If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were to proceed with reducing the current standard by half, as had been considered, a typical aggregates facility would have to cut production by up to two-thirds in order to comply, leading to additional plant closures and significant job loss at a time when aggregates production is down an average of 40 percent across the nation,” says Joy Pinniger, NSSGA president and CEO. “We are pleased EPA has not added additional burdens to our struggling industry.” Last November, the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill preventing EPA from imposing more stringent federal dust standards and exempting nuisance dust from EPA regulation, passed the U.S. House of Representatives. NSSGA Government Affairs Chairman Pete Lien, the president of Pete Lien & Sons in Rapid City, S.D., testified on Oct. 25 in support of the bill before a hearing of the House Energy & Power… Keep Reading
Study shows rehabilitation effective for former aggregate sites
A study being released by the Ontario Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (OSSGA) shows that rehabilitated aggregate sites are being successfully integrated into their communities and surrounding landscapes once rehabilitation has been completed. OSSGA retained a team of planners and ecologists to review 337 sites that had been licensed pits and quarries. The sites were fully extracted and rehabilitated to new land uses in the Oak Ridges Moraine Plan Area, Niagara Escarpment Plan Area, Greenbelt Plan Area, Lake Simcoe Protection Plan Area, as well as Metropolitan Toronto and the City of Ottawa. Field visits produced data on each property in the study, including amount of tree coverage and native vegetation, as well as current site use, surrounding land uses and municipal zoning. Among the findings was that the land uses of the sites are natural (32 percent), residential (15 percent), recreational (13 percent), water (11 percent), open space (11 percent), with other occurrences of industrial, commercial institutional and other land uses. There is about 17 percent tree coverage on the… Keep Reading
Main says enhanced enforcement strategies are working
Despite a number of challenges confronting the mining industry over the past two and a half years, MSHA Assistant Secretary Joseph Main says the actions being taken by the agency and many in the industry are moving mine safety and health in the right direction. Main made that remark, among others, at a one-day seminar last week sponsored by Penn State University’s miner training program near Pittsburgh. “Following the April 2010 explosion of the Upper Big Branch Mine, one of my most significant challenges was keeping MSHA focused on our overall mission and agenda to advance mine safety,” Main says. “That tragedy clearly identified that more needed to be done to provide miners with a voice in the workplace, and that MSHA needed to more aggressively use its tools under the Mine Act to enforce the law. We began taking actions immediately after the disaster, and we are still continuing to implement a number of initiatives to make mines safer.” Three months ago, the agency released the results of its… Keep Reading
Will natural gas boost your bottom line?
Gasoline and diesel prices will probably never be as low as they once were. But another fuel, natural gas, is positioning itself to play a role in your operation and boost your bottom line in the coming years. More natural gas is coming with the recent introduction of horizontal drilling as part of the longtime hydraulic fracturing process. For you, this means a more abundant supply of natural gas, a domestically available product and better pricing than the fuels for which the United States has become dependent on the Middle East. Among the industry companies catching onto natural gas developments are Caterpillar Inc. and Westport Innovations Inc., which collectively announced an agreement last week to develop natural gas technologies for off-road equipment like mining trucks. Programs are already being developed for engines, combustion technology and fuel systems, and the companies expect commercial production to begin in about five years. “Our customers have been demanding these types of products,” says Steve Fisher, vice president of Caterpillar’s Large Power Systems Division, in… Keep Reading
