Investment in new drilling rigs and breakers has helped one Vietnamese quarry avoid closure. ABE reports.
Gaining permission to extract rock by blasting is getting more and more challenging and the situation is no different in Vietnam. The government has applied a blanket ban on blasting in any quarry close to its cities, but there is still a growing demand for aggregates in these urban areas.
The Bien Hoa Building Materials Production and Construction Company (BBCC) quarry is located 32km east of Ho Chi Minh City and falls outside the blasting ban area. This has placed the material under high demand and the quarry has recently gained an extension and is investing in new equipment.
The site has recently taken delivery of a third BR4510 hydraulic breaker, to work alongside the three
The 20ha quarry, which produces around 8million m3 of aggregates a year, was reopened in 2007 and scheduled to close in 2010 but has now gained an extension to 2012. Although it is someway outside the city limits, it is less than 2 km from the main highway to the city so transport of material is not an issue.
The quarry has between 2 to 10m of overburden but the granite deposit is almost unweathered so material with a compressive strength of 1500 to 1700kg/cm2 is consistent throughout.
Rock at the quarry is blasted and the 4tonne BR4510 breakers used for secondary breaking before the material is crushed to produce 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20mm aggregates grades.
The newest breaker is mounted on a 35tonne
According to BBCC site technical supervisor Ho Thanh Thuy, the BR4510 is better than other brands of breaker that the quarry has used and "makes light work on even the largest granite boulders."
