Folmar says that because BoDean was the first aggregate operation to install a plate filter press in the United States, and the manufacturer wasn’t represented in the U.S. aggregate market when the press was purchased, making the learning curve was tougher for the operation than it might be today. Having a domestic distributor has been helpful, he says.

Scroggins agrees, noting that it bridges a gap with parts availability. “We can’t have downtime with the press because that bottlenecks everything. If the machine went down, and we had to wait for parts to ship from Italy, we could be completely down for more than a week,” he says. “So it’s nice to have a U.S. distributor in the industry.” Phoenix has also been working with BoDean to test cloths for the plates on the press, working to find an optimal weave to tweak the system and further raise efficiency.

In keeping with its spirit of self-reliance, BoDean handles its own drilling and blasting, shooting once or twice a week as needed to meet demand. At the end of the mining cycle, BoDean also handles reclamation internally, planting native grasses and vegetation, and moving trees, including redwoods, on site to preserve them as the mine expands.

The Mark West Quarry employs a primary jaw, a secondary cone, a tertiary vertical shaft impact crusher, and a tertiary screen that recirculates materials to the secondary crushers as needed. From the secondary stage, a surge tunnel feeds the wash plant, which consists of a scalping screen, blade mill, triple-deck wet screen, and a cyclone and dewatering screen. The quarry produces material from 1-inch down to sand; washed material includes 1-inch by #4 and 3/8-inch. The wash plant also has a VSI crusher as part of the circuit. This allows the company to make all sand material, if necessary, by running coarse material back through the wash plant and reducing it through the VSI.

“We’ve seen a lot of wash plants with water just sitting around the equipment,” says Soiland. “We want to drain and recapture as much water as possible, so the wash plant is sitting on asphalt. Even water that’s dripping off the plant is caught in basins and sent back for reuse.”

“This operation ultimately hinges on the press. Without this press, we wouldn’t be able to have the wash plant,” Folmar says. “When we had to purchase sand for the asphalt plant, it was really expensive. By manufacturing our own sand, the wet plant has slowly, but surely, paid for itself.”

Article courtesy of Phoenix Process Equipment Co.