|
Sponsored by:
For over 100 years, Flexco has offered safe, efficient products, services, and solutions for the belt conveyor industry. To learn how Flexco can help maximize your productivity, contact us at
(630) 971-0150 or www.flexco.com
Click here for more information
|
|
The latest government effort to create jobs should have the same tough restrictions on lobbyists and lawmakers’ pet projects as the $787 billion stimulus plan did, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. LaHood is the first official to say whether the administration wants to replicate the requirements of last February’s economic aid package. That plan mandated that every dollar be reported online, that Congress could not steer money toward earmarks, and recipients had to disclose how many jobs were being created.
|
MORE
|
Sitting in the small, dusty office of his business, David Iddings pulled out certificates praising the 25-year safety record he has compiled at his Union County limestone mine. “That means absolutely nothing to me,” Iddings said. “That means I must be doing a hell of a good job, and they aren’t appreciating it.” “They” is the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration, which since July has slapped the 69-year-old Iddings with 85 citations calling for more than $300,000 in fines. And more fines are pending, fines that could total as much as $1.4 million, according to Iddings’ Maryland attorney Adele Abrams, and carry possible civil prosecution that could potentially shut down his mine.
|
|
MORE
|
Judge Carlos Villa has ruled in favor of Cemex and against the state of Texas and the General Land Office for pursuing a suit against Cemex, threatening to shut down its operations and seeking $558 million in royalties and the full value for the removal and sale of sand and gravel at Cemex’s McKelligon Canyon operation in El Paso County. The ruling rejected the state’s case against Cemex and affirmed that Cemex has every right to remove and sell sand and gravel at its operations. Judge Villa ruled from the bench that sand, gravel, limestone, granite, caliche, and soil are not minerals reserved to the state and that the state cannot require Cemex to pay royalties for their removal.
|
MORE
Letter to the editor: City should grab quarry for new events center
|
Sioux Falls, S.D., should reclaim the quarry along Madison Street and Interstate 29 into an events center. Put a roof over it and call it the Quarry Dome. Here is why this might be a good solution…
|
MORE
Opponents turn to court to derail North Carolina cement plant
|
Environmental groups have gone to court to force a controversial cement plant near the North Carolina coast into a full review of potential pollution before it receives state operating permits. Multiple media reports said that opposition groups asked a Wake County court in Raleigh to review a state agency’s decision on the proposed Titan American plant. The agency said the project near Wilmington doesn’t require a full review until public money is spent.
|
MORE
Ontario gravel road relocation raises troubling questions
|
Area residents are challenging the relocation of a gravel access road on Gore Road near County Road 23 in Ameliasburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario. W.D. Harris Excavating applied to the county and the Ministry of Natural Resources for permission to relocate the road earlier this year and received approval by September 2009 without providing notice to affected residents. The residents, led by Canadian music icon Bernie Finkelstein, the founder of True North Records and long-time manager of Bruce Cockburn, are concerned that the relocation of the road may adversely impact Fallsbrook Creek, a significant watercourse and flood plain that traverses the Harris property and drains into the Sawguin Creek Marsh.
|
MORE
Delaware mine's business model makes shift to 'green'
|
Stancills began as a surface clay mine serving the construction industry in sand, gravel, and clay. The rock found here is quartz, an alluvial deposit resulting from the flow of the Susquehanna River into the Chesapeake Bay. “Clay is primarily used as a sealant in landfill applications,” Emlyn Stancill said. “Unlike sand, which is angular in shape, clay forms into platelets that lie tightly upon each other, making for a more impermeable barrier.” The advent of commercially manufactured liners for landfills and other factors changed the business.
She estimates as much as 80 percent of the business now is focused on aggregate applications, such as blends for horse tracks and green roofs.
|
MORE
Alaskan mine opposition by regional corporation induces anger
|
Two Bristol Bay village corporations that own land near the massive copper and gold Pebble prospect said they are outraged by their regional Native corporation’s decision to oppose the proposed mine. The board of the Bristol Bay Native Corp. (BBNC), which represents about 8,500 shareholders who live in the region or have ancestral ties to its villages, voted last week to oppose Pebble due to concern about its possible impact on fish runs. The mining companies studying Pebble said they are disappointed with BBNC’s vote but they plan to forge ahead with the project, which they think would be compatible with Bristol Bay’s fisheries and would supply hundreds of jobs for decades. Alaska Peninsula Corp. and Pedro Bay Corp., two of roughly 30 village Native corporations in the Bristol Bay region, condemned the vote.
|
MORE
Rock quarry plans to proceed in Tennessee
|
Long-debated plans for a rock quarry can proceed now that the Clinton, Tennessee, Regional Planning Commission has unanimously approved a site plan by the Rogers Group. Preparatory groundwork, including the creation of earthen and rock berms surrounding the Bethel community property, is expected soon, said Clinton Building Official Curtis Perez. The reopening of the long-abandoned quarry has been a hotly contested issue since 1995, when Anderson County Commission blocked rezoning of the property and the controversy ended up in court.
|
MORE
Five isolated men maintain rural central Oregon highway
|
The 130-mile stretch on U.S. Highway 20 between Bend and Burns, Oregon, is straight, just a few small, mostly boarded-up towns dotting the landscape. One of those towns is Brothers, with a post office, a small store, and not much else. But look closer. The roads are clear and the rest area is clean, and that’s due to the work of five men who live in town on an Oregon Department of Transportation gated compound. The crew is responsible for nearly 100 miles of U.S. Highway 20; they’re the ones who keep the road passable in the winter and safe in the summer.
|
MORE
Stocks, dollar rise after strong U.S. data
|
World stocks rose for a third straight session and the dollar set a two-month peak against the yen after upbeat U.S. housing market data fanned expectations for a solid recovery in the U.S. economy. Data showed that sales of previously owned U.S. homes jumped to the highest level in nearly three years last month, offering the latest evidence that the housing market – the main trigger of the worst U.S. recession in 70 years – is on the mend. This fanned expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates sooner than its counterparts in the euro zone and Japan, sending the dollar higher and pushing U.S. Treasury yields to four-month peaks.
|
MORE
Geithner: Tight lending threatens U.S. recovery
|
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner expressed confidence that the U.S. economy was on a solid recovery path, but said tight lending practices by banks still pose a risk. “Right now, the real risk we face is that banks are not lending enough and not going to provide the capital businesses need to grow for the economy to strengthen going forward,” Geithner said in an interview on National Public Radio.
|
MORE
Changes at Area Management level at Holcim
|
Bill Bolsover will retire from his position as area manager and member of the senior management of Holcim Ltd. at the end of March 2010. In 2006, he was appointed CEO of Aggregate Industries Ltd. with activities in the United Kingdom and the United States. At Holcim Group level, he was also in charge of the corporate function Aggregates & Construction Materials Services. In 2010, Bolsover will be elected chairman of the Board of Directors of Aggregate Industries UK and will remain a member of the Board of Directors of Aggregate Industries US. Bernard Terver, currently CEO of Holcim US, will be appointed area manager and member of the senior management of Holcim Ltd with effect April 1, 2010. In his new role at Group level, he will be responsible for Holcim US and Aggregate Industries US, but remains CEO of Holcim US.
|
MORE
Vulcan Materials Co. elects directors
|
Vulcan Materials Co. announced that Kathleen Wilson-Thompson and James T. Prokopanko have been elected directors of the company. Wilson-Thompson is currently senior vice president, global human resources for the Kellogg Co. She joined Kellogg in 1992 as a senior attorney and has served in her current position since 2005. Prokopanko is president and chief executive officer of The Mosaic Co., one of the world’s leading producers of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients.
|
MORE
Dean Franks promoted to ARTBA Director of Congressional Affairs
|
Dean Franks has been promoted to director of congressional affairs, the Washington, D.C.-based American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) announced. Franks joined ARTBA in October 2006 as a legislative representative after a successful three-year stint on Capitol Hill. In his new role, he serves as the association’s liaison to the U.S. Congress. As a key player on ARTBA’s government relations team, Franks advocates and communicates the transportation construction industry’s priorities on infrastructure investment policy issues before members of Congress and their staffs, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the entire executive branch.
|
MORE
Bucyrus agrees to acquire mining division of Terex
|
Bucyrus International announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the mining equipment business of Terex Corporation for US$1.3 billion in cash. Terex may request to receive U.S. $300 million of the purchase price in the form of Bucyrus shares. Bucyrus will offer a product portfolio comprised of walking draglines, electric rope shovels, hydraulic excavators, off-highway haul trucks, highwall miners, underground longwall, room and pillar and transport machinery, and a full line of drills and belt systems for all mining applications.
|
MORE
|
