New sand plant boosts efficiency at Rugeley

A NEW sand production plant is helping CEMEX UK boost efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of their largest UK sand and gravel quarry at Rugeley, in Staffordshire.

The site’s latest investment, a plant manufactured by American quarry equipment specialists Greystone, and the first of its type installed in the UK, is capable of producing up to 200 tonnes of sand per hour depending on the type of deposit.

Three main grades of washed sand are produced at Rugeley: a –4mm concrete sand; a –2mm building sand for the mortar market, and a fine sand (–500 microns) for a variety of construction uses.

The Greystone plant’s ability to produce all three sand products more efficiently means that the quarry is able to recover more saleable material without increasing the level of extraction from the site, thus extending the life of the reserves.

‘Gaining permission to extract sand and gravel is becoming ever more difficult. Although a very significant resource, there is still a finite life at Rugeley and we must not take this for granted,’ explained CEMEX regional director Stuart Keighley.

‘The new plant allows us to recover the maximum amount of saleable product with minimum wastage. The deposit at Rugeley is deep and consolidated, and this new plant allows us almost infinite flexibility to meet our customers specifications.’

The plant is computer controlled with the extracted material travelling through a series of crushers, washers and screens before being sorted through an array of 27 valves. These can despatch precise quantities of separate grades of sand to exact individual requirements by tailoring the mix at the control centre.