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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52 • ROCK products • March 2018 www.rockproducts.com Drones O ld Hickory Clay Co. (OHCC) has the largest ball clay reserve base in the United States, comprised of Kentucky clays, Tennessee clays and Mississippi clays. This large clay portfolio makes it possible for OHCC to produce a wide vari- ety of clay blends to meet any customer requirement and to engineer unique clay solutions required in today's most demanding applications. The company currently operates 23 active mines in Ten- nessee, Kentucky and Mississippi, including an aggregates operation, and has several more sites in the permitting pipeline. OHCC operates two ball clay-processing plants located in Hick- ory (Graves County), Ky., and Gleason (Weakley County), Tenn. It's the only ball clay producer with an operation in Kentucky. The production of clay products entails excavating material from a deposit and transporting it to covered storage. OHCC ball clay blends are then produced in shredded form (20 to 25 percent moisture), semi-dried form (8 to 1 percent mois- ture), air-floated powder form (2 to 3 percent moisture) and slurried form (65 percent solids). Ball clays are shipped in bulk and in packages via rail and truck to consumers all over North America and Mexico, and in packages to Europe, Central America and South America. OHCC has the experience and expertise with logistics to ship ball clay anywhere in the world. Operations in Real Time With a large number of plants and equipment regularly moving from site to site, it became difficult for the company to keep a grasp on the real-time status of its operations. According to company Engineer David Gavin, P.E., when he came on-board a little more than a year ago, the company was using traditional surveying methods to track site conditions. Gavin wanted to take a more technological approach. "I tried using Google Earth, but the images were sometimes far out of date," he said. "Plus, often we would do work at a site for a few weeks and then not come back for six months, and the site might be filled with water by then. We needed Old Hickory Clay Flies High Ball Clay Producer Uses a Kespry Drone System for Site Surveys, Per- mit Application Materials, Reserve Calculations and Future Planning. By Mark S. Kuhar

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