by Jon M. Casey

At the invitation of Owen Stewart, Vice President of Operations for Savage Stone, LLC, we recently visited the company’s Jessup, MD facility to see how the business has grown since it was featured in the March 2008 issue of North American Quarry News. It was then that we highlighted the company’s primary crusher, a Lippmann 5062 jaw crusher, for its reliability and durability after it was installed in 2005. Since then, the crusher has performed without a hitch.

It’s a good thing too, because this hard rock plant currently ships anywhere from 600 to 1000 truckloads of aggregate each day to customers throughout the greater Baltimore, MD region. With that output supplying construction and site prep projects, it’s easy to see how this plant will ship upwards of 2.5 million tons of product in 2014. What is truly amazing to a visitor like me however, is how well the facility is maintained and how clean and dust-free the operation is.

Gary Long, plant manager, and Dennis Sullivan, safety director, began our plant tour, starting at the scale house. The weather conditions were perfect, which offered us ideal conditions for photos. Since the company’s dust abatement program was in full use, the facility’s photogenic characteristics became evident. There were two sweeper trucks patrolling the entrance, exit and scale area, while a CAT WT009 water tanker made its rounds from one end of the facility to the other.

“We have paved much of the highly traveled areas,” noted Long. “There is a tremendous pride of ownership at Savage Stone and you can see it everywhere. We have two, dust control water trucks in continuous operation as well as two mobile sweeping units. We work very hard to be good neighbors to the surrounding community. It also makes working conditions here much safer as well.”

Long explained that this operation does not produce any aggregate for use in concrete or asphalt production. “All of our production goes to construction activities such as fill, drain material, rip rap and other site prep activities. Since this is a deposit of Baltimore Gabbro stone, contractors like to use it for everything from rip rap to crusher run. We can’t make the crusher run and 57’s fast enough!”

A little bit of history

According to Stewart, Savage Stone is operated by Laurel Sand & Gravel (LSG) a company started by Kingdon Gould & family in 1982. Initially, the family operated two sand plants, both of which depleted their reserves and closed in the mid 1990s. Knowing that the reserves would eventually run out, LSG began exploring the possibility of developing this quarry on several hundred acres of land that Mr. Gould had purchased in Howard County near Jessup.

After several years of community involvement beginning in 1995, this strategically placed location was rewarded with the company’s mining permit, issued on 12/22/03. From there, construction began in Feb. 2004. With several plans under consideration, the final design was jointly engineered by Steel Systems Installation, Inc. and LSG.

The plan called for a two-plant design that included a primary plant, what is now called the “Primary Side” and a tertiary plant or today’s “Finishing Side.” The Primary Side was completed in 2005 while the Finishing Side came online in March 2006. Stewart noted that in addition to this “hard rock” quarry, LSG also operates six limestone quarries and one sandstone quarry. They also own and operate four concrete plants, two asphalt plants, and 1 concrete block plant at sites located in Maryland and West Virginia.

The Primary Side

On the “Primary Side” of this picturesque plant, crews in the pit load granite shot rock into a fleet of four EH 1600 Hitachi Euclid haul trucks. Teddy George was filling one hauler with a Komatsu 900 series front-end loader while Jose Mata filled a second Euclid with a Komatsu PC 400LC excavator. Another crew, at one end of the pit, up on ground level, was busy clearing new ground for future mining in the coming months.

From the working face in the pit, haul trucks travel to and from the primary crusher located near the rim of the pit. There, they dump the shot rock into the infeed hopper atop the Lippmann 5062 Jaw Crusher. Additional shot rock is stockpiled near the primary as a backup for production needs when necessary.

The shot rock passes over a 54-inch by 26-inch vibrating grizzly feeder with overs conveyed to an 8’ x 20’ Deister triple-deck screener where rip rap, Gabion are screened out and stockpiled with the 8-inch minus material conveyed to the primary surge pile. Rock going through the grizzly is crushed in the primary crusher, then conveyed to twin Sandvik S 6800 gyratory secondary crushers (still located on the “Primary Side” of the plant). Everything from these twin secondary crushers, goes to the surge pile as 8-inch minus material. From there, five feeders control the flow of material onto a 1200-foot long, 54-inch overland conveyor that transports material to the “Finishing Side” of the plant for further crushing and screening.

The Finishing Side

Once the 8-inch minus material arrives on the “Finishing Side” of the plant, it intially is screened across a triple-deck 8’ x 20’ Deister screen producing 2A or 2S aggregates through a series of hydraulic gates. The remainder goes as feed material for twin Sandvik H 6800 gyratory crushers where it is crushed and sent on to the finishing screen plant, which houses four, Deister, 8’ x 20’ four-deck screens. The entire plant is computer controlled with an operator on each side, one in the control module overlooking the primary crusher and the second in the multi-purpose building, that houses administrative offices, electrical control utilities and an area for employee dining and meetings.

“About one third of our production is 57’s,” said Long. “Another third is 1-1/2 inch CR6. The rest divided up among several products including 1’s and 2’s, Gabion and rip rap.”

“Our greatest demand right now is for 57’s and Crusher Run (CR6),” added Sullivan. “We have to stay focused to keep those two products in stock. With all the construction that is going on in a 50-mile radius around Baltimore, we move a lot of those two products.”

Long concluded saying the location of the Savage Stone plant in Jessup, MD, couldn’t be more central to the demand for their products. “If you were looking to open a quarry in an ideal location to serve the greater Baltimore area, this would be the ideal location.”

Clearly! From here it looks to be, “Picture Perfect!”