In quarry years, Florida Rock's Paulding Quarry is still a baby. The granite deposit was opened just five years ago some 40 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Since 1998 the company has been slowly chipping away at its 500-acre site and taking steps to improve its processing plant. The hope is that this area soon will be teeming with construction activity.

And that hope is based on how the areas surrounding Atlanta have been growing. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Paulding County was the 11th fastest growing county in the nation between 2001 and 2002. Population in that county grew 6.1% to 94,184 in 2002. And that's more than double the population (41,611) from the 1990 census, which was nearly double the 1980 census figure (26,110).

Other counties surrounding the Atlanta metropolitan area also are growing. Cherokee, Bartow and Carroll counties made the Census Bureau's 100 fastest-growing counties in 2002.

“As you come in from Atlanta, you see a lot of development being built,” says Paulding Plant Manager Shaun Ramsay.

The biggest question regarding demand for aggregate in Georgia is will the state's new administration fund transportation projects, says John Cardosa Jr., executive director of the Georgia Crushed Stone Association. Like most states, Georgia is feeling the sluggish economy. “Georgia has a $700 million surplus. But by next year, the budget could be as much as $1 billion in the red.” Cardosa also says most of the construction activity is taking place about 50 miles south of Atlanta.

But if growth does continue near Paulding, Florida Rock wants its quarry ready answer the bell.

Digging in

Sixteen full-time Paulding employees are mining three 45-ft benches and removing overburden from other areas. The mine operates one shift, five days per week. Near the top of the deposit is brownish-colored granite — called weathered or decomposed rock — and below that is gray granite. The decomposed granite at Paulding tests strong enough to meet state specifications for asphalt, concrete and other sized material. It cannot be used in Georgia for roadbase material, often being rejected on color alone.

Right now, Paulding only blasts three or four times each month. Each shot drops as much as 60,000 tons. The company's Cat 990 loader feeds two Cat 773 haul trucks at the muck pile. At the farthest point, the trucks travel 2,200 ft to the primary crusher.

Paulding makes two 1½-in. base products, three sized stones (numbers 57, 7, and 89), M-10s, washed screens, and both types I and III rip rap. The company sells material in a 20-mile radius to the three surrounding counties.

When the operation opened in 1998, material was first crushed in a 35- ∞ 46-in. Pioneer jaw crusher, then by a 5- ∞ 2-ft Nordberg Simons crusher for secondary breaking. Material was then sent to a portable unit for sizing.

Major Equipment Reference

Mobile Equipment
Wheel loaders	900, 988, & 980	Caterpillar
Haul Trucks (2)	773, (2) 769	Caterpillar
Dozer	D8	Caterpillar
Motorgrader	12G	Caterpillar
Processing Equipment
Screens	5- ∞ 10-ft double deck scalping	Hewitt-Robbins
	(2) 8- ∞ 20-ft triple deck	Deister
	(2) 7- ∞ 20-ft triple deck	Deister
Crushers	35- ∞ 46-in. primary jaw	Pioneer
	5½-in. cone	Nordberg
	(2) H4800 cone	Sandvik
Screw		Greystone
Hammer	225	NPK

But that arrangement just got the quarry crawling. Florida Rock has been preparing Paulding to take its first steps. Those steps included bringing in a new plant manager and a new plant.

At just 26 years old, Shaun Ramsay became plant manager in December 2002. On his first day, Ramsay's found himself immersed in a major project — designing and installing a new finishing plant to replace the portable plant.

“With it being a fairly new site, I got to be on the ground floor of a lot,” Ramsay says. “Unfortunately, the finishing plant was almost built when I got here. But, I was involved with the last 25% of the construction. It was fun and challenging.”

That construction was completed this past March. And like that first shiny new tooth, the finishing plant gleams at visitors entering the quarry. At the heart of the plant are two Sandvik H4800 cone crushers and two Deister triple-deck 7- ∞ 20-ft screens. The plant also has one Deister 8- ∞ 20-ft triple-deck rinse screen and a Greystone screw for washed products. The primary and secondary were left unchanged.

The move to a stationary plant increased production by 20%, Ramsay says. The biggest gain so far has been reduced downtime. However, it will still take a couple months to fine-tune the plant to get the production levels the company expects, he adds.

Fortunately, the company designed flexibility into the plant. The plant's automation was designed to work with current demands. However, it can be expanded or modified, Ramsay says. “We can go back into it in six months and see what works and make adjustments,” he adds.

Likewise, the two Sandvik cone crushers also can be adjusted. Florida Rock bought Sandvik's ASRi crusher control system. The system both monitors and adjusts the crushers.

“I like the ASRi package,” Ramsay says. “It will really be useful when we start keying on specific sizes.” Once the system is programmed, it only takes seconds to make the plant produce a maximum amount of asphalt-sized stone. Or, if Paulding get a large order for concrete stone, it can quickly switched over to maximize that material.

With the setup they have now, they are operating at optimal level, says Steve Butts, southeast regional sales manager for Sandvik Rock Processing. But they can adjust the cones and gain 15% to 20% more production by increasing the throughput.

“Our goal is to get consistency in what we're producing everyday,” Ramsay says. “So far, we're satisfied with the plant design.”

And part of what went into that design came from lessons learned at other operations. Although still young, Ramsay has made a few stops in his career before taking over at Paulding.

The 1998 Virginia Tech graduate began with Florida Rock at the Havere De Grace Quarry in Maryland as a manager in training. That quarry is much older and about four times as large as Paulding. After becoming pit superintendent, Ramsay moved to the company's Richmond Quarry in Virginia and worked as assistant plant manager.

“The thing I learned about being at older plants is that there is a lot of idea sharing,” he says. Experienced engineers and miners share what they've learned at other plants, he adds. But this was harder to come by at the new Paulding Quarry.

Because Florida Rock hired from the local job market, it didn't have the experience that older mines do, Ramsay says. Florida Rock did bring experienced miners in to train the new Paulding work force. “But when guys are at the same operation for 10 years, they have seen a lot go wrong and can prevent it from occurring. We don't have that yet.”

However, the Paulding Quarry did benefit from Florida Rock's experienced staff during the finishing plant's design stage. They made a lot of small modifications that were adopted from other plants, Ramsay says. One such modification was wider walkways to allow workers more room to carry tools. They also added a walkway over the conveyor near the head pulley and connected it to the screening tower walkway. Additionally, there is a maintenance platform to reach the U-bearings on the take-up pulleys.

“Little stuff like that doesn't seem like much,” Ramsay says. “But if you have to pull bearings, it is very helpful.”

But even with a new finishing plant online, Florida Rock continues plotting Paulding's course. “We're still determining where we're going to mine,” Ramsay says. “We're still running a lot of different mining scenarios.”

So far, the mining has not gone below 40 ft. And Ramsay says the company is not sure yet how deep to go. We're planning now for stockpile space and if we should relocate the primary crusher, he says.

“What we want to do is plan it proper now,” Ramsay says. “We want a good mine plan that everyone agrees on so that in 10 years we're not saying ‘oops.’”