Quarry Faces: January 2022

Dusty Rinderknecht, left, and Avery Martin, both with Sandvik Mining & Rock Solutions, showed off the company’s Leopard DI650i down-the-hole (DTH) drill during the final day of Quarry Academy in San Antonio. According to Sandvik, the Leopard DI650i, which was released in 2018, is a diesel-powered, self-contained, crawler-mounted intelligent DTH drill rig designed for demanding, high-capacity production drilling applications in surface mining, as well as large-scale quarry applications.

David Walker, emulsion operations general manager at Dyno Nobel (left), and Tristan Worsey, a licensed blaster for Dyno Nobel, served as presenters at the three-day Quarry Academy educational seminar. Walker delivered presentations on process improvements while Worsey discussed the fundamentals of vibration control and blasting complaint management.

Lance Griffin, Cemex’s director of aggregate operations in Texas and New Mexico (left), and Adam Slusser, plant manager at Cemex’s Balcones Quarry in New Braunfels, Texas, were on hand for a production blast during the final day of Quarry Academy. According to Slusser, the Balcones Quarry was on track in November to produce 13 million tons by the end of 2021. The massive operation  produced more than 12 million tons in 2020.

Mike Kotraba, project manager for Dyno Nobel’s drill-to-mill efforts, visited with Quarry Academy attendees on the first day of the 2021 seminar. Kotraba delivered presentations on quarry planning and metrics and fragmentation management.