Modern Quarrying April-May 2016

SAND PROCESSING AT THE QUARRY FACE

Combined wash plant makes grade at gravel quarry

To reduce heavy moisture content, regional Victorian aggregate producer Mawsons Concrete & Quarries in Australia required a wash plant that could consistently clean sand and aggregates, and retain as many fines as possible at one of its sand quarry operations. Damian Christie, editor of Quarry, the journal of the Institute of Quarrying in Australia, visited Whorouly Quarry to viewMawson’s wash plant in action.

industry’s presence is not insignificant. Mawsons Concrete & Quarries, which has catered for regional communities throughout northern Victoria for over a century, purchased the sand and gravel quarry at Whorouly in early 2014. The company’s intention, according to Trevor Gilbert, who is the regional manager for Mawsons’ quarry division, was to extract aggregates and sand at the Whorouly quarry for the decorative aggregate market and for supplementary use as a coarse sand at Mawsons’ concrete plants. The quarry produces a full range of aggre- gates, including 7,0 mm, 10 mm, 14 mm and 20 mm fines, the aforementioned coarse sand and decorative and garden pebbles, including 20-60 mm, 60-150 mm and 300 mm pebbles. The geology of Mawsons’ Whorouly Quarry, however, is unique, compared to even most sand quarries. The quarry is located on a completely flat parcel of former agricultural land. The sand

W horouly is a town in Victoria’s north- east, 275 km from Melbourne and 35 km southeast of Wangaratta. It is nestled between Snow Road (which runs from an interchange on the Hume Freeway) and The Great Alpine Road. The town is located in the valley of the Ovens River and was first surveyed and proclaimed in 1868. It is surrounded primarily by agricultural land (originally released in 130 ha lots) that has been used for sheep, beef and dairy cattle farm- ing, as well as grain farming, orchards and

market gardens, timber manufacturing and more recently wine grape growing. Despite being nearly 150 years old, Whorouly, as of the 2011 census, had a modest population of 519. Of this num- ber, 274 were in active employment (the Census’ records will not accommodate the total employment numbers in the Whorouly region, as there are likely to be employees who commute fromother parts of the Rural City ofWangaratta). Their occu- pations included labourers, technicians, trade workers and machinery operators. There are numerous quarries in the Wangaratta local government area, so the

The M1700 is a fully- mobile rinsing screen that can be used in sand and gravel, crushed stone and recycling applications.

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MODERN QUARRYING January - February 2016