Clee Hill Quarry and Asphalt Plant

Steve Hill

Toby Stanley

Hugh McGuigan

Clee Hill Quarry and Asphalt plant has been added to the MQP network from June 2014 as part of an expansion plan to grow the asset base and broaden our offering to customers.

The Clee Hills contain a wealth of minerals including coal, dolerite, limestone and iron ore. These minerals have been extensively worked over the last 800 years but most recently it is coal and dolerite which have been important. The Clee Hills are an area of carboniferous rocks lying within the core of a fold. More than 30 metres of Upper Carboniferous coal measures comprising shales, mudstones, sandstones and thin coal seams overlie a thick layer of dolerite. Varying thicknesses of younger glacial deposits cover the whole area.

The quarried rock is dolerite known locally as Dhustone. By the late 1970s almost all the remaining reserves of dolerite were covered by glacial deposits and coal - including four coal seams. A study of the coal reserves was carried out and between 1988-1992 an open cast mine was established. About 320,000 tonnes of coal was mined. The result was that large reserves of high quality dolerite were exposed and the future viability of Clee Hill quarry was ensured.

Stone is blasted from the quarry once per month and is then loaded by an excavator into a 50 tonne dump truck. The rock is transported to the primary crushing plant. There the stone begins its journey through a series of crushers and screens where it is graded according to size, to suit the needs of customers. The sales of drystone from the unit are approximately 250,000 tonnes per year. Products we produce include rock armour, for building sea defences, gabion stone for ground stabilisation work, rail ballast and garden rockery stone. We also produce various single sizes as well as crusher run.

The asphalt plant was installed in 2007. It is a KVM Plant and is rated at approximately 110tph. The asphalt plant can be fed directly from the tertiary plant or by external hoppers.