SITE VISIT // KELHEAD QUARRY
GEARING UP FOR THE FUTURE
David Wylie visits the Grange Quarry Group to see how its new prime mover, the first Hitachi ZX530-7 to be sold in Scotland, is settling in s we have reported over the years, Lockerbie-based Grange Quarry has a network of quarries, concrete batching plants and local operating centres, together with fleets of both tipper and mixer trucks, supplying aggregates and ready-mixed concrete across Dumfriesshire and northern Cumbria. Since our last visit to Kelhead quarry near Annan, a new market has been developed for the limestone deposit on site, in the form of an agricultural lime. Last year 70,000 tonnes of this high calcium material were distributed by Grange Quarry to farmers throughout Scotland. A key product on site is a Breccia stone, known as Kelhead Red, which has many applications and is used extensively by Grange Quarry’s Lockerbie and Dalbeattie batching plants. Once the distinctive red rock has been through the primary crusher at the face, new Liebherr wheel loaders feed a fleet of articulated dump trucks, which haul the material to the top of
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the quarry. Much of it is tipped directly into the washing plant’s in-feed hopper, which produces various finished products, including 10/20/40mm stone, together with grit and sand.
NEW PRIME MOVER Every few weeks a team from contractor RJ Blasting carry out their trade at the Kelhead quarry. Depending upon demand, the blast releases 20,000 to 60,000 tonnes of material at a time. Around 350,000 tonnes a year are extracted from this site, using a 50-plus tonne excavator as the prime mover at the main face. These duties have recently been entrusted
Grange Quarry has replaced a 50-tonne class mass excavation spec machine at its Kelhead quarry with a standard reach Hitachi, which weighs closer to 60 tonnes.
“THE ADDED ADVANTAGE OF MUCH BETTER REACH TO EFFECTIVELY LOAD THE MOBILE CRUSHER FROM ONE POSITION” NOVEMBER 2021
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16/09/2021 16:09
