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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54 • ROCK products • March 2018 www.rockproducts.com Drones 100 Years of Service Old Hickory Clay Co. shipped its first rail car of high qual- ity Kentucky ball clay from the Hickory, Ky., area in 1918. The company was founded by Ralph N. Scott, a Paducah, Ky., resident who was the manager of West Kentucky Coal Co. After successors Lee F. Powell, and Joe A. Powell followed him in running the family business for many years, it is currently in the 100th year of continu- ous operation under the ownership of fourth-generation President J. Lee Powell. Through the years Old Hickory has enjoyed expansion stages through growth and acquisition opportunities that have included mining and processing plants in Gleason, Tenn., and McIntyre, Ga., in addition to a modern head- quarters and plant site in Hickory, Ky. Most recently a sister company, Gleason Clay Co., was added via acquisition in 2014 which further enhances reserves of Tennessee ball clays, and adds additional mines, and a large processing plant with extensive storage to the family of businesses. Old Hickory and Gleason Clay products are used for indus- trial minerals applications including ceramic tile, sanitary ware, dinnerware, asphalt emulsion, electrical porcelain, refractories, proppants, synthetic rubber, and various other building materials, fillers, and adhesives products. There are approximately 100 employees working in all aspects of the operations of clay mining, including drilling, overburden removal, mining, trucking, processing and ship- ping the finished product. Clay is shipped via rail, truck, intermodal and barge both domestically and internationally. Old Hickory and Gleason Clay share an experienced man- agement team including President/CEO J. Lee Powell; COO Cheryl Lehmkuhl; CFO, Bill Hinson; Vice President Of Sales Bill Rogers; and Technical Director Ken Bougher. of the drone also had appeal for us. And the price point was very favorable when we looked at the entire package. It was a good selec - tion for us." Gavin is the company's main point person for surveying and per- mitting. He operates the drone himself, downloads data from the drone and uploads it to The Cloud. "I am not a licensed surveyor, so there is a comfort level in knowing that I can easily gather this data and that it is accurate," he said. "I can sit at my desk now and I can look at every mine. If someone has a question I can answer it in five minutes where before, I would have to drive out to a site and gather the information in person." In addition, company executives can sit at their desks and look at any of their mining properties in three states and see how work is progressing. No doubt the convenience is a plus. Permitting When it comes to permitting, it is now easy for the company to create a current plot of a mine site to help expedite the creation of materials for submission. "I can bring the ortho photo into our CAD software and make adjustments," he said. "So I can show sizing impoundments, acres disturbed, number of roads, areas reclaimed, what parts are vegetated, all of the details in just a matter of minutes." The company now also has an easy way to map contours for an exist- ing mine. "By analyzing topography, it is easy for us to determine what water flow will be in a particular deposit and what the contour changes are after we have worked in a particular area," Gavin said. At its aggregates operation the drone is also used to determine stockpile volume and material on the ground, although they cannot use it for that at its clay operations, as the excavated material is stored under-roof. "I would highly recommend the Kespry system to other operations," Gavin said. "It has saved us time and money, and we just may find other uses for it up the road as well."

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