Gypsum producers in the United States typically have stationary crushing plants, says Kirk Rainbolt, general manager for Kimball Equipment in Las Vegas. You’ll rarely find a gypsum producer with a portable crushing setup, he adds.
Still, that doesn’t mean a portable system isn’t a feasible one – if not the better choice to crush gypsum. Blue Diamond Hill Gypsum, a producer located in Blue Diamond, Nev., broke tradition within the last two years when it went with a portable Cedarapids CRH1316 horizontal shaft impact crusher from Terex Minerals Processing Systems (MPS). Blue Diamond also invested in a Cedarapids MVP450X cone crusher, a Canica VSI 2000 vertical shaft impact crusher and a Cedarapids LJ-TS horizontal screening plant to build a portable processing fleet for its gypsum mines.
“None of us had really done gypsum before with a portable crushing plant,” says Rainbolt, who represents Terex MPS at Kimball Equipment. “We weren’t sure of the results. We ran some tests with some test equipment, and we designed a plant based on what Blue Diamond was trying to make.”
Blue Diamond’s David Hornsby, who was hired in 2012, made the decision to go with the portable setup. Hornsby and his wife previously owned a mining company in Oregon and Washington where they used portable processing equipment. They were familiar with portable crushing equipment, as were their employees. Some of their employees joined Hornsby at Blue Diamond when the parent company reactivated the mining site a couple years ago.
“One of the obstacles in a gypsum plant – at least in the size acreage that Blue Diamond has – is that the gypsum deposits aren’t all in the same place,” Rainbolt says. “If you move to a section of the land where the gypsum’s at and you mine that quickly, I think you’re better off with a portable system than building a permanent application.”
According to Hornsby, the site in Blue Diamond, Nev., contains 36 mines and stretches about 11 miles.
“There are some other gypsum plants here in Vegas where they crush with a primary [crusher] and convey it over open land for a mile or two,” Rainbolt says. “You can do it that way, but there’s an expense getting it from the face. We’ve moved the plant to wherever the face is, which is not how it’s usually done.”
Going forward, Hornsby doesn’t anticipate operating with anything other than portable processing equipment.
“It will always make sense to go portable because it gives us so much more production,” he says. “You don’t really lose anything. You can get as much production.”