Rock Products

MAR 2018

Rock Products is the aggregates industry's leading source for market analysis and technology solutions, delivering critical content focusing on aggregates-processing equipment; operational efficiencies; management best practices; comprehensive market

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56 • ROCK products • March 2018 www.rockproducts.com Computer-Based Drilling C harlie Selman and long-time associate Billy Phillips, a driller and drill technician, had sensed a shift coming in the quarry industry's operating model that would place a premium on efficiency. In 2008, when the recession bit hard into the U.S. construction economy, Selman and Phillips con- fidently founded Quarry Services LLC of Marietta, Ga. Selman is CEO of the company. Phillips is operations man- ager, serving in a number of roles that include lead driller trainer and maintenance director of the company's current workforce of 20 drillers and fleet of down-the-hole (DTH) blasthole rigs from Epiroc – Part of the Atlas Copco Group. Selman said the reason for Quarry Services' success as a blasthole-drilling specialist is its ability to offer aggregate customers the most precisely placed, highest quality holes possible. From the beginning Quarry Services has preferred Atlas Copco for its drill rigs. "We chose Atlas Copco because they 'got us,'" he said, describing the company as "a long-term, reli- able partner, continuously working alongside us to provide us with solutions that support our business model – sustain- ability through accountability." Selman and Phillips had also anticipated the development of the SmartROC line. The commercial availability of the SmartROC D60 was eagerly welcomed. They had attended its prototype demonstrations in Missouri and in Australia. "I wanted to buy them right then," Selman said, "but they weren't for sale yet." They were exactly the rigs Quarry Services had been waiting for. Since 2016, Quarry Services has acquired five SmartROC D60 units with one more on the way. Other units in the Quarry Services fleet will be replaced with SmartROC D60 rigs as each comes up for scheduled rotation. Epiroc District Manager Paul Colvin said, "Quarry Services is a prime example of a drilling contractor leveraging SmartROC capabilities to their fullest." Precision Means Blast Control Selman said, "Before 2008 aggregate producers were more production-oriented. Now companies have to be efficient to be sustainable. The recession brought clarity to that." Some companies are now preparing for the uptick in demand by widening their pits. One of the largest problems they are facing is that decades of high-production quarrying meant diving deeper into an already-exposed resource rather than set aside production time to remove overburden. Today, when quarries return to pit development, they discover challenges that hadn't existed previously. One pit Quarry Services is working for today is a prime example. The operation had been established in a remote, back-wood location accessed by one long, gravel road. Today the pit shares boundaries with an industrial complex and its warehouses, with paved county roads on either side of the pit. An interstate highway passes nearby. A posh residential neighborhood has been built not far from what had been an inactive area of the quarry property. Blasting contractors working deep in a pit can rely on the pit's own walls to assist in containment. Upper levels of the Quarry Services Drills Down Georgia Drilling Contractor Provides Computer-Based Confidence in Every Hole. By Mark S. Kuhar CEO Charlie Selman with driller Corey Desrosier.

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