From hauling dirt to processing it, excavating contractor J. Lee Milligan has invested in a new CDE EvoWash sand washing plant. CDE says that the plant is expected to more than quadruple processing volumes at the firm's production facility in Amarillo, Texas.
Founded in 1937 with a single truck and a contract to haul dirt for $1.25 per hour on New Mexico's Conchas Dam project, J. Lee Milligan has grown to become one of the largest heavy highway construction firms operating in the panhandle and South Plains of Texas today.
Its latest investment will lead to the commissioning of a new 200 tons per hour dual pass EvoWash. The plant will replace an existing 40 tons per hour traditional sand screw.
Last fall, CDE launched a campaign to enable operators to trade in their old, less efficient sand screws. With data from the United States Geological Society indicating that in some of the most densely populated urban centres across the United States demand for sand and gravel reserves often outstrips supply, CDE launched the campaign to support natural sand producers to adopt modern technological solutions to drive efficiency across their operations.
"We're losing quite a lot of material to the pond, meaning we're having to work harder for longer to meet our production targets," said Chris Brannon, aggregates superintendent at J. Lee Milligan. "With this new CDE plant, we'll be able to vastly increase the rate of production and capture the fine material we're missing to offer a healthy boost to our bottom line."
"Though sand resources in the Texas area are in abundance, it still makes good business sense to process that material as efficiently as possible," said Ronan Duffy, business development manager at CDE. "Powered by CDE hydrocyclone technology, J. Lee Milligan will benefit from excellent control of cut points to increase in-spec sand recovery with their new EvoWash. This flexibility means the business will be able to respond to the needs of customers and the market in an agile way to really accelerate the return on their investment."
A compact, modular sand washing system, the EvoWash screens and separates the smaller sand and gravel fractions through an integrated high-frequency dewatering screen, sump, and hydrocyclones which provide unrivaled control of silt cut points to eliminate the loss of quality fine material with significant commercial value to settling ponds.
Producers can still take advantage of CDE's trade-in deal by swapping their sand screw for CDE's EvoWash.
