Production capacities at many quarries have decreased considerably in the past year. As a result, these quarries are now starting to use more flexible semimobile equipment, which has quick delivery and installation times, as well as using contractors that have fleets of mobile crushing and screening equipment, says crushing and materials handling suppliers Pilot Crushtec national sales manager Nicolan Govender.
The company reports seeing changes in plant installation and the operating methods of its quarrying customers, with many shifting away from using conven- tional large vibrating screens and stockpiling mountains of materials to temporary mobile quarrying plants, he says.
“Most of our customers now prefer semi- mobile equipment, which is why our Pilot Modular range of quarrying equipment has done well. “Our experiencstone crushing plant inventorye in semimobile equipment enables us to complete a 150-t/h modular aggregate plant with primary, secondary and tertiary crushers within a few weeks,” he explains.
The company also reports an increase in the number of quarries that rent equipment from mobile crushing and screening contractors for short periods to bolster production when needed, he adds.
Pilot Crushtec supplies a range of mobile and semimobile equipment that can meet any quarry’s crushing and screening needs. The company has also introduced a range of larger mojaw crusher machine manufacturersbile and semimobile jaw crushers. The largest to date, a Pilot Modular/Trio MJ3254 (32-inch × 54-inch) jaw crusher with vibrating grizzly feeder, was sold earlier this year and the company recently received a Terex Finlay J-1480 (55-inch × 30-inch), which is the biggest jaw crusher offered by Terex Finlay, Govender says.
Further, the company has spent a significant amount of time developing its range of Vertical Shaft Impact crushers over the past year and these crushers can help to supply high-quality road stone products by redugyratory crushers vs jaw crushercing the flaky shape of normal crushed stone. The company has also enlarged its installations and technical team to enable an increase in installation, commissioning and training for its quarrying customers, he adds.
“Now that the World Cup has passed, quarries are looking forward to the next big projects in the pipeline, and we are cautiously optimistic for the future. “South Africa must continue to build infrastructure and the quarrying industry is vital to any harbour, airport, roads and low-cost housing developments being built. While price of rock crushing equipmentprivate spending in these areas has been quiet for some time, many positive things are expected from government spending into infrastructure,” he says.
Govender adds that road stone aggregate has become more popular with the many South African National Roads Agency Limited road upgrading projects taking place all over South Africa, providing a constant market for the quarrying industry.
Projects and Challenges
Current Pilot Crushtec projects include installing a Pilot Modular crushing and screening plant for a black-owned quarry in KwaZulu-Natal, Govender says, adding that the company will work closely with one of the five biggest aggregate producers in South Africa to increase capacity at its existing plants throughout the country. The company has started installing equipment at two of their Gauteng quarries.
However, the biggest challenge that the company has faced was its customers having difficulty accessing finance for new machine purchases. Machine sales in the quarrying industry would have been considerably higher if customers were able to obtain finance to buy new machines. The selling margin in the quarrying industry is fairly low, owing mainly to competition, with new machine acquisitions being very dependent on getting a suitable finance deal from the banks, he says.
Meanwhile, regulations and legislation are affecting the industry. There is an increased emphasis on good mining prac- tices at quarries to ensure that environmental and rehabilitation planning is done, health and safety standards must be adhered to, and empowerment initiatives that affect how companies do business are a key focus, Govender explains.
Further, another effect of regulations is that natural sand miners are having several problems obtaining mining licences. This is forcing local quarries to add tertiary crushers to their plants to produce crushed sand, which improves the local beneficiation of products as part of their licence responsibilities, he concludes.