Atlantic Minerals’ expands Lower Cove Quarry to keep ore flowing to offshore customers
It may be located in a place called Lower Cove, but there’s nothing ‘low’ about where Atlantic Minerals’ Lower Cove quarry is on the southwest coast of Newfoundland.
In fact, the 2,900-acre limestone and dolomite quarry is strategically located 200 feet above the Cabot Strait and directly connected to the south shipping lanes leading to the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland’s Port au Port peninsula.
It’s from this ideal and picturesque location that Atlantic Minerals has been supplying its customers along North America’s eastern seaboard and to the Caribbean and into South America, with a steady supply of aggregates since 1995.
With more than a billion tonnes of reserves, including Proven Reserves of more than 157 million metric tonnes of chemical-grade, high-calcium limestone, and over 89 million metric tonnes of chemical-grade dolomite on the property (plus massive quantities on an additional 13,000 acres of Licensed Claims elsewhere on the Port au Port peninsula), Atlantic Minerals is well positioned to be supplying limestone and dolomite for decades to come.
For now, Sales Manager Chad Elliott says the company is satisfied with the scale of the operation but he emphasizes that the company is not sitting still and becoming complacent with its current production levels.
In fact, quite to contrary because Elliott says, “The company is concentrating on improving its production capabilities to help ensure we remain a reliable supply for many years into the future.”
The most noticeable addition to improve production at the Lower Cove site is a massive Lippmann 5062 jaw crusher and surge tunnel designed to produce approximately 1200 tons per hour from the quarry to the new surge area. It replaces the previous 42×48 Hewitt Robbins jaw crusher which had been in use since 1988.
Raymond Fitzpatrick, Atlantic’s Plant Engineer says, “Previously, our old crusher was on an ‘inline’ circuit which fed directly to two screen units and secondary cone crusher. This brought with it the inherent deficiencies in that at any time there was downtime at either screen, cone crusher, or any conveyor in the circuit, the jaw crusher had to shut down accordingly.
“By adding a surge reclaim tunnel between the screens/cone and the primary crusher, the crusher is no longer dependent on the operating status of downstream equipment. We will also now be able to produce a stockpile of material after the crusher and control the feeders in the tunnel to provide a steady and continuous flow rate of material as opposed to the surges of material coming through the old crusher directly.”
To further improve production at the quarry, Fitzpatrick says the company has also added a Komatsu PC2000-8 200-ton class excavator to replace its previously used 120-ton class excavators.
“The excavator allows us to more efficiently load the 100-ton trucks which we are using to haul material from the quarry to the primary crusher. Furthermore, it also decreases waiting time while loading and helps us develop a more efficient cycle time from the quarry to the crusher. Our intent is that the new excavator and new primary crusher will allow the company to eliminate the existing 12-hour hour shift through the night-time hours,” says Fitzpatrick.
To further make the Lower Cove quarry more efficient and productive, Fitzpatrick explains, “Our new scalping screen, which is located between our primary jaw crusher and cone crusher, is used to separate the oversize material which needs to go through the cone from the smaller material which can bypass it. This screen is also used to scalp off any clays or wet material from our product if needed. It was replaced last year with a KPI 8’x24’ horizontal screen. The previous screen was a smaller inclined screen, but the larger screen is giving us a far more efficient screen process before the cone.”
But that’s not all. Two years ago Atlantic Minerals installed an 8’ x 24’ horizontal triple deck screen after the cone crusher. This screen allowed the company to stockpile two finished products earlier in the process before going through the processing plant.
Fitzpatrick said the efficiencies of this process are the result of the material which does go to the plant being stockpiled over another reclaim tunnel where it can be drawn down and sent into the plant at a controlled rate.
And naturally, control is what Fitzpatrick says is the key to the Lower Cove operation.
“We plan to install a new control tower for our processing plant. This tower will give us a logistical improvement allowing our control room operators to sit at an elevated height of approximately 35 feet with a 360 degree view of the plant, the VSI (Vertical Shaft Impactor), and plant surge pile and the two radial stackers on the S1 screen. This will be a great improvement as previously the operators were on ground level with windows only on one side, making them much more reliant on radio contact without being able to ‘see for themselves’,” says Fitzpatrick.
Like all progressive mining operations, the Lower Cove Quarry will continue to move forward and again, Fitzpatrick says, “There are a few other projects of varying sizes coming in the future.”
“We are looking at adding a loader-fed belt feeder to the VSI circuit. This will benefit us by giving us a redundant alternate feed point to the VSI, which is a small circuit of its own. Currently the only feed for the VSI system comes through the main plant. With a belt feeder we could continue VSI production during plant maintenance.”
In addition to improving its production processes, Fitzpatrick says there are also a few yard logistic improvements scheduled for the near future.
“Currently a number of products must be loaded and trucked to stockpiling locations from their production point. We are looking into logistical improvements so that we can use conveyors to stockpile more material and to reduce the handling by trucks and loaders that we currently are forced to do,” said Fitzpatrick.
The company is currently working on centralizing its diesel and gasoline pumps into a single centralized location with modern dust proof high flow pumps.
All in all, Atlantic Minerals’ Lower Cove Quarry is not only a safe and productive operation, it’s personally one of the most beautiful sites I have ever visited in my travels for coast-to-coast in Canada.
Aside from being neat and orderly, the view is fantastic.
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