Among Breedon’s flagship UK sites, Raisby Quarry in Coxhoe, County Durham, northeast England, has an admirable sustainability focus and a proud and long history of producing high-quality magnesium limestone aggregate products. Aggregates Business reports.
Running its loading and hauling fleet on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a renewable, synthetic fuel that can be used as a substitute for diesel, is just one of the eye-catching sustainability-minded practices at Breedon Raisby Quarry, a one million tonnes/year magnesium limestone aggregate processing operation.
“We’ve had our mobile fleet running on HVO since July 2024 and have had no issues with it. It will be interesting to see how it performs going into winter. You can get issues with winter diesel, as the additives may cause problems with your fuel filters,” said Breedon Raisby Quarry manager Jon Merchant during Aggregates Business’s visit in late November 2024.
In the summer of 2024, Raisby, Breedon’s largest northern business quarry, conducted a three-month trial of a fully electric ready-mix concrete vehicle. The trial, conducted in partnership with Putzmeister and Zenobē, marked a significant step for Breedon in the UK as it executes its ambitious net zero strategy. The introduction of the battery electric vehicle (BEV) resulted in a substantially reduced rate of carbon emissions through its sophisticated BEV configuration.
With approximately eight hours of running time in urban areas without a recharge, the iONTRON eMixer can support a full day’s operations. Its electric motor significantly reduces noise emissions, further aiding its suitability for operations in densely populated urban environments. The 9m³ drum is comparable to conventional mixers, resulting in operational performance comparable to Breedon’s existing internal combustion engine-powered fleet.
The custom-built vehicle is 100% electrically powered and equipped with a substantial 350kWh battery provided by SANY, the parent company of Putzmeister. Zenobē monitored the vehicle’s operational performance and provided the charging infrastructure, including a 120kWh free-standing DS Series charging unit installed at Raisby.
By working collaboratively with Putzmeister and Zenobē, leading operators in the battery electric vehicle and charging infrastructure ecosystem, Breedon has enhanced its understanding of BEVs and how introducing them can help the wider quarrying industry cut emissions.
“Breedon is now monitoring its [iONTRON eMixer] effectiveness in terms of sustainability. A mixer truck like that also has other issues, such as the cost to hire and run it,” said Merchant.
Speaking at the start of the iONTRON eMixer trial, Mike Pearce, managing director of Breedon GB Materials, said: “We are very pleased to be part of this exciting development, which shows our commitment to helping our sector reduce carbon emissions. Our trial of the battery electric ready-mix vehicle is a major step forward in our decarbonisation journey and demonstrates our responsibility and ambition to embrace innovative solutions.
“Breedon is always looking for ways to evolve and utilise new technologies to reduce the impact of our products and services on the environment, communities and colleagues. Over the next three months, we look forward to working closely with our partners on this trial and exploring how our findings can support greater change across the entire industry.”
“Fleet investment here is ongoing,” said Merchant. “Two years ago, we received two new loading shovels and a dumper. Two Cat 775s [rigid dump trucks] have also had engine rebuilds. Other machines will likely have engine rebuilds over the next year. It considerably extends their life.”
Asked about the fuel efficiency of his loading and hauling machine fleet, Merchant said: “We see marginal gains [with latest generation machines], but it’s difficult to monitor on this site as the operation can be so variable. You use machines in many different applications.”
The Coxhoe Local History Group (CLHG) has noted that limestone quarrying in the area dates back as far as the 13th century, taken from the accounts of Durham Cathedral, which mention three wagon loads of lime from Coxhoe for use in the Manor of Merrington.
The Group has highlighted that quarrying began at Raisby Hill in 1845. The limestone was burned in kilns and mixed with sand to make mortar and water for whitewash. Many of Coxhoe’s older houses were built with rough limestone blocks.
CLHG has documented how lime from Raisby Quarry [situated on Raisby Hill’s southern and western flanks] was used for agricultural purposes and the stone for road construction, as it still is today.
“With the development of the iron and steel industries and the blast furnace that was so important in iron and steel making, limestone was transported by rail to Middlesbrough for the steel-making process,” noted CLHG. “This continued until the 1980s with a weekly train taking limestone out of the quarry by rail to Teesside.”
CLHG said that in 1881, Raisby Quarry came under the ownership of the Raisby Hill Limestone Company. Basic Works were added to the works in 1883 and came under the separate ownership of the Raisby Basic Company. CLHG has documented that Raisby Quarry was believed to have been the largest quarry in the world, “though how far this is true can only be guessed at,” the Group said.
CLHG said that while limestone quarrying continues at Raisby Quarry to this day, the site supports local employment on a smaller scale than once was due to mechanisation.
Breedon acquired Raisby Quarry from Hope Construction Materials in 2016. As well as magnesium limestone aggregate, Breedon produces 25,000 to 30,000m³/year of concrete at Raisby. Tarmac, a CRH company, also operates its Coxhoe asphalt production plant within the Raisby Quarry footprint.
Merchant talked Aggregates Business through how he and his quarry team extract and process Rainsby magnesium limestone. “It’s contractor drilling and blasting from one of four different benches, depending on which products we want to make. The material is loaded onto dump trucks at the face and hauled down to the primary crusher. After being crushed, the material is transferred by conveyor to our 500-tonne storage bin. That material is then directed to various parts of the processing plant, where several stages of crushing and screening occur, depending on what material we are making.
“We also have two mobile [crushing] lines down in the quarry. One is a Kleemann impactor, which predominantly makes agricultural lime from the top bench. Then we have a jaw [crusher] line, which we use to make fill materials. We also have a cone [crusher] that we can put on the end of that to make single-size products.”
Asked about Raisby’s most popular products, Merchant replied: “It depends on the contracts out there at the time. This year has seen demand for Type 1 [roads/highways sub base typically sized -31.5mm to dust], Type X [permeable sub base from -40mm to dust] and 6F5 [basic general hardcore material sized -100mm to dust] materials. Our concrete plants have been quite busy, too, producing a lot of single-sized material. We export a fair bit of our agricultural lime to Germany.”
Aggregates Business was visiting Raisby Quarry in late November 2024. Merchant said the market during the year had been “a bit more challenging” than 2023. “That year was phenomenal. The drop off [in 2024] has largely been down to the weather. Projects are still there but keep getting put back due to weather issues. We have not had the best summer. Summer here has been more like a winter!”
Merchant said there are 20 million tonnes of limestone aggregates reserves at Raisby Quarry, leaving the site well set to continue its rich limestone aggregates processing history for many years. “Beyond that, we can quarry on another site, with planning [for that] in 2037.”
Who are Raisby’s main customers? “We sell to local construction businesses and some nationals, too. Concrete aggregates are largely for our internal use. We also supply some materials to competitors, usually when reciprocal trading is required.”
Raisby Quarry employs 28 people, with Aggregates Business visiting just days before one new supervisor and a new fitter were due to increase the ranks. The quarry has been within Raisby Hill’s geological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) since its SSSI designation in the mid-1990s. Several other SSSIs are within 2 km of the site: Town Kelloe Bank, Trimdon Limestone Quarry, Charity Land, and Quarrington Hill Grassland. Also within 2 km are local nature reserves at Little Wood, Crowtrees, Coxhoe Quarry Wood, Raisby Way, and Trimdon Grange Quarry.
Breedon’s Raisby Quarry is well-positioned to continue its impressive production, with sustainability at the heart of its work.
THE BREEDON RAISBY FLEET
Loading & Hauling:
Cat 966M loading shovel x 2
Cat 972M loading shovel
Cat 980M loading shovel
Hitachi ZW370-6 loading shovel
Hitachi 530LCH excavator
Cat 374 excavator
Komatsu PC490LC-10 excavator
Case CX300 excavator
Cat 305 excavator
JCB 16 C-1 excavator
Cat 775 RDT dumper x 2
Cat 745 ADT dumper x 2
Volvo A45 ADT dumper
Mobile Crushing & Screening:
Kleeman impact crusher MR130 Z EVO
Terex Finly jaw crusher J1175CS M00Z309
Terex Finlay C-1550 cone crusher
Terex Finlay 883+ Spaleck (screen)
Terex Finlay 696 3-deck (screen)
Mockeln 5200 Eurotrack (screen)
Mockeln 2500 (screen)
Powerscreen Cheiftan 2100X (screen)
Mobile Stockpiling:
Tesab Trackstack 8042T
Fixed Crushing & Screening:
Nordberg Lokomo CE140 jaw crusher
Allis Chalmers S50 cone crusher
Nordberg HP300 screen
Nordberg HP300 cone crusher
Wash Plant:
Terex Washing Systems’ AggreSand 206 (generator fed)
