Huidong Jiahua Quarry covers an area of 0.785 km2 in Huidong city Guangdong province and has a resource reserve of nearly 120 million tons. It was prepared in 2010 and put into operation in April 2012, adhering to the concept of its predecessor - Hong Kong quarry - in terms of safety, environmental protection, noise, quality and harmonious development, it also strictly complies with relevant laws and regulations and issued certificates according to law, such as approval certificate and business license, mining license, safety production license, blasting operation license, pollutant discharge license, approval agreement for the use of forest land, certificate of water and soil conservation program, and more.
It is hard to imagine that most of the production equipment of the Huidong Jiahua quarry, which exports more than 300,000 tons per month and sells about 100,000 tons in the mainland, has been in operation for more than 20 years and is still working well.
Referring to this history, Hong Zhikang, senior quarry manager of Huidong Jiahua says: "Around 1997, due to the Hong Kong quarrying industry renovation, Hong Kong Andachendao Jia’an Quarry shouldered quarrying and ecological restoration management, and signed a set of crushing equipment with Metso with a contract value of up to 100 million Hong Kong dollars. This was a turnkey contract. The production system was designed, installed and commissioned by Metso and then handed over to Jia’an. The production system was officially launched around 2000 and operated consistently until the quarry closed in 2016. Subsequently, complete sets of equipment were transferred to Huidong Jiahua Quarry, including 2 jaw crushers, 3 secondary and tertiary cone crushers, feeders, vibrating screens and others. "We hope we can bring them back to life in Huidong."
In 2017, environmental protection regulation requirements from the mainland China became higher and higher, with unqualified sand and aggregate enterprises being shut down one after another. The local demand for sands and aggregates in Huidong was relatively large, and the demand for sand and aggregates in Hong Kong also increased. A Metso HP500 cone crusher was installed to replace an old machine in the existing production line. As the local market demand in Guangdong increased, Huidong Jiahua installed another 2 cone crushers in mid-2018, and 1 jaw crusher in the beginning of 2019 to increase total production. It was known that the original production line in Hong Kong, with about 1250 t/h production capability, was copied to Huidong Jiahua and upgraded with continuing modification. Its current output has reached about 1100 tons.
The original Metso production line was more productive, while Huidong Jiahua's new production line was less productive. Mr Hong said: The main problem lies in the design and practical use of the equipment. Metso continues to provide technical guidance and maintenance methods to the onsite staff of Jiahua. When encountering difficulties, Metso can arrange service engineers immediately to provide on-site guidance and repair. On-site workers also use and maintain the equipment in accordance with the instructions of Metso engineers, and the equipment is in good operation without any major failures, despite their age.
It is understood that Metso's equipment has worked for nearly 20 years from the Hong Kong Andadaochen quarry in Huidong Jiahua Quarry. Due to consistent training from skilled Metso experts, the equipment operator can handle maintenance and repair properly, so operating performance is closed to new facilities. In addition, the speed of Metso HP is very high, with up to 800 to 1000 revolutions per minute, and the aggregates grain shape is good and more competitive.
Manager Hong states: ”In addition to blasting and transportation personnel, Huidong Jiahua has 60 employees, including production team and office staff. The production team is divided into three shifts, eight-hour for each, and these workers are able to be operator and maintainer.”
Limited by site conditions, the plant design and layout of the Huidong Jiahua production line uses a small part of the building. A number of equipment is concentrated in a certain space to keep running, with a lot of details. However, being in a closed, noisy, inconvenient air circulation environment caused a certain amount of discomfort. Metso's equipment has an automated system that remotely detects problems through detectors and assigns employees to repair them, making life easier for front-line workers.
At present, Jiahua quarry adopts network technology, control technology and information technology to realize the automation of processing technology, production safety management and information control of equipment.
In terms of the development of sand and gravel, there is still a lot of room for improvement and development in mainland China. With the ongoing attention of government functional departments and the continuous improvement of relevant laws and regulations, the progressive improvement of the quality of practitioners and the market competition environment is becoming more and more standardized. There will be more history and story of sand and aggregates enterprises in mainland China! In the future, the hope is that the development of the sand and aggregates industry can be documented with time-supported information.
Thanks to the great support of sandstone Aggregate for this article *Metso Outotec was established on July 1, 2020, this article is prior to that, written in the original company name.