Making Little 'uns outta big 'uns

[Big_Dave]

Pictures of one of the quarries I haul out of.

Last week they dynamited a section of 'wall' near a corner of the quarry. For safety reasons, they closed the quarry and nobody but the blasting crew was allowed on site during blasting. This took about 20-30 minutes to drop the wall. The big rocks in the foreground are what they've picked out of the pile and need to be split into smaller chuncks so the crusher can handle them.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6728.jpg

Breaking the rocks so they're small enough for the crusher. That excavator has a jackhammer attachment on it instead of a bucket.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6730.jpg

Feeding the crusher. That's a Cat 988F loader.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6726.jpg

Sorry about the quality of this pic. I took it about 6 am this morning from the rim overlooking the quarry floor. See the big 'empty' space behind the trailers and between the two conveyors? That's where the 'mountain' was that we've been hauling.

The small pile of rock on the right is what's left of the pile first thing this morning. Only made 2 rounds before that was gone and we started hauling red quartzite from the Sioux Rock Quarry near Jeffers MN.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6733.jpg

[snoope]

Big Dave,

My kinda pix. :D :D :D .....Love playing in the "rock pile" or the "Sand Box"......



Snoope back quiet

[PartTimeDweller]

Portable plant? They must move it around the quarry as needed.
The quarry's around here have a stationary plant and haul the "big rocks" in big off road dumps. If you look between the two dumps, you can see a Cat 235 Hoe, which has a huge breaker, for breaking up any jam ups.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y280/ptdweller/149009466_489320112_0.jpg

This is "street" level. They load the big dumps downstairs with Cat 992's.
When I get a better camera, I will take more pictures of the operations this summer.

[Big_Dave]

Portable plant? They must move it around the quarry as needed.
From what I've seen, that's what they do. They have several plants / quarries that they use.

They do have one permenant plant set up in the Kasota Quarry. The conveyors that feed it is over 1 mile long. :wow:
Here's a satellite view of that quarry. Too bad it's not close enough to see where the conveyors start and end. The Kasota quarry is to the right of the diagonal road coming south out of town.

The conveyors start in the lower left corner near where the 'Z' road goes east between the 2 quarries and it goes all the way up to the gray 'diamond' at the north end of the quarry near the south end of town.
Kasota Quarry (http://www.terraserver.com/imagery/image_gx.asp?cpx=-93.96444416&cpy=44.27639312&res=8&provider_id=380&t=pan&OL=Off)

[snoope]

PTD,

That is our "Newest" equipment purchases......3 "Jaw" crushers and 2 "Cone" crushers..all on tracks ( portable )..We love "LEDGE"...Our current job site has us making 6-8" stone , 4" gravel, 2" stone base and clean 2",stone dust and 3/4" for our pipe runs......With these new machines we can set-up in less than a 1/2 day with both LowBeds moving "Toys"....And when it is not cost effective we haul all oversize to our "Pit"......the "Crushing crew" sets-up there 2-3 times a year to create stock piles....


Snoope back quiet

[Big_Dave]

They were getting ready to blast again yesterday (Thursday).

Filling the holes with whatever they use to blast the walls with (they have a guy that drills holes in the ground about every 4'). From the edge, it looks like they're gonna blast about 30' (basically, all the way to the front drive axle of their truck).
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6738.jpg

The long pile of rock is to stop the falling rock so it doesn't go into the area we're driving through. If they didn't do this, it'd take them a long time to clean it up so hauling operations could resume.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6739.jpg

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6740.jpg

To estimate how high the wall is, look at the guy standing on top. The ice cicles have returned because it's been pretty cold here again. :wtf:
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6743.jpg

This is the size rock we're hauling (4" x 6").
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/Big_Dave_2006/100_6741.jpg