A SALUTE TO AN CUSTOMER

OSBORNE MATERIALS COMPANY'S DRUMMOND DOLOMITE

  Successful limestone quarry continues to increase productivity with solid management, equipment
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Gib Aikey, Plant Manager Gib Aikey, Plant Manager

When Osborne Materials Company took over operations at Drummond Island on Michigan's Upper Peninsula 18 years ago, it hoped to bring a new level of speed and efficiency to a limestone quarry that had already been in existence for decades.

Today, Drummond Dolomite Incorporated has achieved that goal. With vessel cargoes totaling 1.7 million tons of product in 2004, Osborne has achieved the highest level of production ever from the island quarry. It's expected to match that production again this year.

That level of success pleases Plant Manager Gilbert "Gib" Aikey, who has been with Drummond Dolomite since Osborne took over in 1988. Aikey had already been with the company for more than 30 years in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, doing highway

PC400LC-7
A Drummond Dolomite operator uses a Komatsu PC400LC-7 to remove overburden at the company's quarry site on Drummond Island

 

and concrete work. But the purchase of the Drummond Dolomite operation offered a new challenge; it would be the construction company's first venture into the quarry business.

"When we bought it, we weren't really sure of anything," Aikey recalled. "We went slowly at it, and each year we gradually built it up. The first year we did something like 600,000 or 700,000 tons, and we just kept upping production to where it is now."

In 1999, the company claimed more than 1.7 million tons of limestone - an impressive figure for a plant with a total of 38 personnel, including six supervisors and 32 hourly employees. Compare that to 1987, when Drummond Dolomite produced 1.2 million tons, with more than twice as many employees as it has today.

When Osborne acquired Drummond Dolomite, one of the first changes Osborne made was to upgrade the equipment. The previous operation used shovels for loading; Osborne Materials went with rubber-tired loaders. "They offer more versatility, and they're much faster," Aikey explained. "Drummond previously used three shovels, which took 14 or 15 minutes to load a truck. Now, we load a truck in three minutes."

Acquiring the quarry

The plant is located on Drummond Island, situated in the Saint Mary's River on the easternmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Its location allows easy access to water transportation, which the company uses exclusively. Drummond Dolomite loads 85 to 90 ships a year with material it ships to ports in

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