Boosting quarry efficiency by cutting fines

The Norwegian quarry firm Feiring Bruk reports an 88% reduction in fines following the commissioning of its new wet processing plant. The firm operates primarily in eastern Norway and has 10 sites extracting and producing crushed stone, gravel and asphalt.
June 4, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Using a new wash plant is helping boost efficiency for a Norwegian quarry firm

As well as its multiple sites in the east of the country, Feiring Bruk works across Norway for key clients, using mobile crushing and screening plants. Having amassed fines stockpiles at Lørenskog quarry alone, Feiring Bruk was keen to identify a solution that would allow the material to be processed and valuable product recovered.

Modularity and mobility are at the core of equipment designed by CDE and this was an important factor for Feiring Bruk as its operations rely on portability. The firm said that it had a massive amount of material it had been unable to exploit, and which previously would have been deposited. But with the new facility it can now extract washed out particles of zero size and can recover a range of new products the previous system was unable to process.

The washing plant at Feiring Bruk’s Lørenskog quarry comprises an M2500 E5X mobile washing plant with integrated hopper, feed conveyor and P3-75 Infinity Screen and EvoWash sand washing plant. For water processing there is an AquaCycle thickener with automatic dosing station, AquaStore water storage tank and a secure control station. Laboratory tests by Feiring Bruk show that the system washes out 88% of the fines. Before washing, the material contains 65kg of fines per tonne, whereas the washed product has just 8kg of fines/tonne. In fraction 0–20, they have measured 6.5% fines before washing. After washing, the fines content is reduced to 0.75%.

Using its new washing plant, Feiring Bruk is able to make use of a large proportion of the excess product. The wash plant systems are designed to recirculate up to 90% of water, helping to reduce the volume of fresh top-up water required. In addition, the Feiring Bruk plant has been placed on a sloped asphalt surface which allows water to flow into the water basin used as a reservoir.

Products extracted using the new washing plant are attracting the attention of new customers in Norway for their improved grading accuracy. The firm says that its customers want drainage gravel in fraction 8–16 to avoid fines. Now the company can supply drainage gravel in fraction 4–16 that has been washed and is free of fines. The uses for the washed material include asphalt and concrete production and paving stones.

Materials

Related Content

  • Booming Chinese aggregate demand
    February 22, 2013
    Global demand for construction aggregates is set to increase 5.2% a year until 2015 to 48.3 billion tonnes, according to research by The Freedonia Group in the United States. The same source tips China alone to account for half of all new aggregate demand worldwide in the period 2010-2015. Guy Woodford reports on the growing importance of the Asian aggregates market. China is already the biggest nation for aggregate production and use in the world, and the competition among the giants of aggregate productio
    Read More
  • Aggregate machinery makers raise the efficiency bar
    May 22, 2018
    Manufacturers of crushers and screens are making their equipment more efficient as well as quieter. Among new entrants into the jaw crusher market is the MC 120 Pro, from Writgen company Kleemann. It was launched last September at the industry trade fair in Homberg/Nieder-Ofleiden, Germany. Both the diesel-electric jaw crusher – operating as part of an interlinked machine combination additionally comprising the MCO 11 PRO cone crusher and MS 953 EVO screening plant – and the MBRG 2000 granulator showed off
    Read More
  • A cracking time for a Rockster Duplex R1200D/R1100DS crusher
    May 1, 2018
    Rockster’s DUPLEX system combining jaw and impact crusher has been hard at work at the Casaccia gravel quarry at the base of Switzerland’s Maloja Pass. The quarry – a part of the Hartmann Group - offers a range of gravel and sand types. Many construction companies from the Graubünden area rely on the certified products such as sand, gravel and grain mixtures. The increasing demand for recycling products such as concrete and mixed demolition granules is also supplied by the Casaccia quarry. It recycles
    Read More
  • Major advances are being seen in aggregate production technologies
    June 28, 2013
    Recent exhibitions have been launch venues for key developments in aggregate production technologies - Mike Woof reports Efficient production of aggregates is crucial for maintaining cost-effectiveness and also lowering material costs. With contractors owning many of their own quarry operations, these firms understand the benefits of reducing materials costs for their road construction projects. Major developments in the equipment for crushing, screening and washing aggregates are now coming to market and e
    Read More

Highlighted Content