In 2018 Tarmac contacted MEP to see if we could resolve the ongoing problem of poor lignite separation and sand losses at their Langford Quarry, the existing plant installed in the early 1980s had come to the end of its economic life.
The quarry processes Trent Valley River terrace sand and gravel, which is contaminated with lignite. The gradings vary between 40% sand and 40% gravel with 10% silts. MEP has resolved this problem at many sites producing clean, well graded, de-lignited sands to lower levels than required for this project.
Our experience of supplying de-ligniting equipment for the Trent Valley goes back to the 1970’s when BCA first installed Hydrosizer’s to remove lignite from concrete sand.
The Project
To supply and install a bespoke 160 t/h de-ligniting sand plant to process river terrace sands and produce a washed concrete sand with lignite < 0.25% by weight with a 10% final moisture and a 1000 tonne capacity stockpile.
The plant together with an MCC and automatic radial conveyor was ordered, delivered and installed on time with no accidents. The project was expanded to include a number of additional items such as the supply and installation of a new selector screen underpan and flume to the new sand plant.
Ryan Simon Project manager commented “The team at MEP were familiar with the problems we were encountering and following numerous technical and commercial discussions we placed an order with them. The plant is built to our exacting standards for safe operation and maintenance”.
The MEP system maximises sand production and gradings without losses to lagoons, Kevin Mawby Tarmacs quarry manager commented “previous production was 600 to 900 tonnes per day with the MEP plant this has increased to as much as 1200 tpd.”
Steve Slingo sales manager commented “The new plant was designed to achieve clean well graded sand that has exceeded the customers’ expectations.
A bonus is that many parts are common across a number of sand plants supplied to Tarmac in the central region.
MEPs unparalleled expertise, experience and track record together with our desire to work with the customer at all levels to ensure the best possible outcome is industry leading.
