Dyno Nobel, a global leader in commercial explosives, along with Sandvik Construction, a business area within the Sandvik Group providing solutions for virtually any construction industry application, once again teamed up to put on the 9th annual Quarry Academy in San Antonio, Texas. Demand for the academy surpassed any previous year with classes filling up in just a few weeks of registration. Those who were able to attend experienced another highly successful educational seminar.

More than 125 people participated in workshops to learn the latest developments in quarrying, safety, lean processes and total value in cost reduction and economic sustainability. This three-day event took place Nov. 18 to 20 and included a tour of the CEMEX Balcones Quarry, the biggest quarry in the United States (according to USGS data). The tour included a visit to the water treatment plant, an electronic initiation system demonstration, a production blast, seismic and post blast overview and ended with a field survey control including instruments, tools and methods.

The workshops were conducted by experts in the industry from both Dyno Nobel and Sandvik Construction. They covered:

• Lean Processes

• Drilling

• Blasting

• Fines and Boulder Management

• Load and Haul

• Fleet Management

• Crushing and Screening

• The Quarrying Process

• Quarry Management

• Unit Operation Efficiency

The ultimate goal of Quarry Academy is to establish the production of aggregates in an efficient manner — providing the highest level of productivity at the lowest levels of overall operational costs.

Aside from the workshops and quarry tour, the academy also included expert speaker Corrie Pitzer. Pitzer is a specialist in behavioral safety and strategic safety management. His presentation on “From Deep Lead to Deep Safe…where few have gone before” touched on the importance of safety in the work environment and how to make safety personal.

Next year Dyno Nobel and Sandvik Construction will be celebrating 10 years at the Quarry Academy: Improving processes. Instilling expertise.

For more information, visit www.quarryacademy.com.

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