Sand & Gravel Quarry
The Workers
Working at Quarryville sand and gravel quarry is hard work but very exciting.
Can you guess what kind of thing different workers do every day?
Click on a workers ID-card to find out more about their job.
Bill Boulder, the Quarry manager
Mr Boulder gets involved with finances, planning permission, health and safety, and environmental issues. He’s responsible for the other ten staff and making sure all plant, machinery and vehicles are working. It’s also his job to meet with surveyors, sales people, buyers and local community representatives. The manager is in constant contact with staff at head office about things like targets (how many tonnes the quarry produces per week, month, year) and restoration plans. There’s lots of paper work!
Sally Stone, Weighbridge operator/works clerk
Sally checks lorries in and out of the quarry. The weighbridge does exactly what it says; if a lorry weighs 12 tonnes when it comes in and 40 tonnes when it weighs out, Sally knows it’s loaded 28 tonnes of material. As clerk, she makes good use of computers for accounts, stock control and marketing. She needs good keyboard skills to enter all the data produced by the quarry.
Bobby Rock, Excavator operator
Many different types of large vehicles are used in quarries. They all require skilled operators to get the best use out of them. Bobby started work at the quarry as a reserve driver, driving a dumper truck around the yard, moving and tidying material with a shovel. Now he spends five and a half days of week at the rock face in his big excavator. The shovel holds 7 or 8 tonnes per bucket if controlled properly. Bobby is an expert at not dropping a “crumb” when loading.
Stan Fixer, Maintenance worker
Large and expensive equipment is used in quarrying and it takes special training and experience to know how to keep machinery in perfect working condition and carry out repairs. Most common problems include vehicle breakdown, blocked crusher, and blocked storage bins. The maintenance worker needs to be a “jack of all trades” mix of electrician, mechanic and welder.
Richie Roller, Conveyor technician
There are 14 conveyor belts carrying the sand and gravel from the rock face to the plant. If one of them stops, the whole process stops. The electric-driven conveyors are very maintenance heavy – this means Richie has to be looking after them all day. Each conveyor belt is like a thin track running on two rollers – slide a piece of kitchen foil over a couple of rollers and you’ll get an idea of how they work.
Pamela Pebble, Laboratory technician
Buyers of quarry products often are quite specific about the quality they require. They may need a very pure rock or they may want a specific size of rock particle to meet their needs. It’s Pamela Pebble’s job to analyze the samples and make sure their composition is correct.