Skip to main content

Boom in Morocco's road construction materials

The strong road construction market in Morocco is helping boost the quarrying market in the country substantially. One such operation exists near the town of Ben Slimane, situated north of Casablanca. Agregat Oued Cherrat (AOC) owns a 65ha quarry, one of the largest of the 14 in the region and when the firm decided to buy new excavators, it also opted to buy Hitachi machines. AOC placed an order for one ZX330-3, with the second delivered three months later and the company now has three ZX330-3s, with a four
February 10, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The strong road construction market in Morocco is helping boost the quarrying market in the country substantially. One such operation exists near the town of Ben Slimane, situated north of Casablanca. Agregat Oued Cherrat (AOC) owns a 65ha quarry, one of the largest of the 14 in the region and when the firm decided to buy new excavators, it also opted to buy 233 Hitachi machines. AOC placed an order for one ZX330-3, with the second delivered three months later and the company now has three ZX330-3s, with a fourth on order. Blasting is carried out every day yielding some 7,000tonnes/day and this is then loaded on to AOC's fleet of 17 trucks. In the past the site has produced 1,000,000 million tonnes/year and it is hoped that the annual output will increase to 1.8million tonnes by the end of this year with the new Hitachi machines.

The trucks unload the material into the separator, which removes the limestone from the soil. The limestone then moves on to the three primary crushers while the soil is used to refill the site. The heaps from the primary crushers are then processed through the three secondary crushers, after which the materials are further separated by two units into four different sizes of aggregates: from 0-3mm to 15-25mm.

Around 30% of the materials are delivered to companies over an average distance of 80km, but the majority is collected by customers. Some 80% of AOC's business is in the concrete sector and the remainder is dedicated to supplying aggregates to the expanding road construction market.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Sila's Sandvik Thai success
    July 17, 2012
    The Sila Sanon limestone quarry in Thailand is playing a key role in providing high quality aggregates for the growing Thai construction industry.Recently the family-owned operation has invested in a full range of crushing and screening plant supplied by Sandvik Construction’s dealer in Thailand, the William Wong Group, and the quarry is now able to supply over 200,000tonnes of accurately sized materials on a monthly basis. The Sila Sanon Quarry in Saraburi Province, just over 100km north of the capital Ba
  • Turkish manufacturers key to aggregates equipment
    February 13, 2012
    Turkish manufacturers are important trading partners in the worldwide aggregate production sector, Mike Woof reports
  • Mobile crushing boosts quarry
    July 19, 2012
    Crushing equipment from Metso is helping boost production and efficiency at the Barrasford Quarry in the UK. Run by Tarmac Quarry products, the operation is now using a Lokotrack LT140 track-mounted mobile crusher, a pair of Lokolink mobile conveyors and several field conveyors. The company is changing the operation from a static to a mobile crushing operation, and it says installing the Metso machinery has helped reduce manpower at the site. The crusher and the conveyors have replaced a pair of static c
  • Scenic location requires careful quarrying
    September 11, 2014
    The picturesque surroundings of the Carrière de Cusy quarry, situated in France’s Parc Naturel Régional du Massif des Bauges, make it evident why the company has a strong commitment to restoration.