Strategic Alliance partners Sandvik and Dyno Nobel held their annual Quarry Academy Nov. 12-15, 2013, at the Omni La Mansion del Rio Hotel in San Antonio. The event included a site visit to Martin Marietta Materials’ Beckmann Quarry.
During the tour the participants received a plant overview; viewed primary loading and the company’s gigantic O&K in-pit mobile HSI crusher; saw an electronic initiation systems demonstration; viewed a production blast (see blast sequence photos); and inspected field-survey control instruments, tools and methods.
More than 130 producers from all over the country took advantage of the program. Rock Products Editor Mark Kuhar was the only quarry industry editor to attend the event.
“Our goal is to stress post-recession process improvements,” said Sandvik Construction Vice President Jeff Heinemann. “It’s a tough situation in today’s market. We want to give you the tools to address these issues.”
“The objective of Quarry Academy,” commented Dyno Nobel Vice President Industry Development/Stone E.J. Burke III, “is to help our customers, safely and efficiently, optimize their operations throughout the value chain.”
Beckmann Quarry lies northeast of Interstate 10 and north of Loop 1604 in San Antonio. The McDonough family started the Beckmann Quarry in 1934. Martin Marietta purchased the active portion of the quarry in 1998 as part of its acquisition of Redland Stone Products Co.
The quarry is now part of the Martin Marietta Materials family of plants. According to USGS, Beckmann Quarry is the largest single-site production quarry in the United States.
The quarry seeks to adhere to Martin Marietta’s core values of being a Role Model quarry through:
- Superior earnings and returns.
- Being a safe, engaging workplace.
- Exceptional customer service.
- Being a community role model.
“We usually blast four times per week, but this goes up and down depending on sales,” said Barton Chevreaux, district production manager for Martin Marietta Materials. “We do our own drilling in-house, but contract the blasting to Buckley Powder, who is a distributor for Dyno Nobel.”
Production at the plant includes the company’s gigantic portable primary crusher that can produce up to 5,500 tph. Secondary production includes a fractionated plant that can produce up to 2,000 tph.
Water recovery at the plant includes a thickener station, water recycling, capacity of 10,000 gal.-per-min. and a manufactured-sand operation.
The plant features a ready mix and asphalt section, and moves aggregates out of the operation via truck and rail.