Anatomy of
A Quarry

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Drilling &
Blasting

Drilling & Blasting

Holes ranging typically from 3-6” are drilled into the rock mass. These holes are typically spaced from 8-17 feet apart and the depth of these holes can range from 5-100 feet. The holes are then filled with explosives and detonated to break the material into fragments small enough to be fed into a primary crusher.

Controlling
Dust

Controlling Dust

Dust generation occurs naturally when the product is loaded into trucks, when trucks travel the roadways, and during processing. The dust is controlled by spraying water on the blasted piles, roadways and, at various points in the processing plant.

Loading The
Raw Material

Loading the Raw Material

The blasted material is loaded into trucks of various sizes and types, most often, using a wheeled front loader although track excavators are sometimes used.

Screener
for Specialty
Products

Screener for Specialty Products

Depending on the job, this screener creates unique products for customer specific needs.

Hauling Raw
Product To
Processing

Hauling Raw Material To Processing

The trucks deliver the material to a primary crushing station. They dump the material into a hopper which feeds the material into a primary crusher. The material, typically, less than 36” in size is then reduced to less than 10”.

Anatomy of a Quarry

Aggregates 101

Summit Materials is a vertically integrated construction materials company and the first step of this integration is aggregates production. Summit Materials has both granite and limestone quarries across the United States and British Columbia, which supply internal and external customers with high quality aggregates from sand for baseball fields, to road base, to aggregates incorporated into asphalt and ready-mixed concrete. The type of material mined determines the operational characteristics of the site, from blasting parameters, to the types of equipment used and the elimination of dust. Here, Mainland blasts almost twice a week, uses water trucks for dust mitigation, and the resulting materials that are necessary for infrastructure improvement in Vancouver are shipped via barge on the Fraser River. Each quarry is unique based on its geography, local geology, size, and equipment utilized. The Cox Quarry shown above, is Summit’s largest quarry, processing about 3.5 million tons of aggregates per year.

Site Selection, Planning, and the Environment

Site selection is based on the combination of delivering the most economical product to society while minimizing any impacts to citizens and the environment. Our economy requires infrastructure and infrastructure requires aggregates. Summit provides society with these essential products, while being responsible stewards of our communities and our environment. Please see our sustainability section for a detailed overview of our commitment to sustainability.

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