Product feature: Xcentric Ripper Mining Series

Date: 10.08.2021

The XR35 has become the core operational tool for award-winning stalwart Kerry Reilly’s latest business

In most instances, the Xcentric Ripper range is up to five times more productive than hydraulic breakers

After a lifetime in the quarry industry, award-winning stalwart Kerry Reilly isn’t slowing down. Kerry’s working life started as an apprentice diesel marine engineer, but it was his next job that put him on the path to his career in quarrying.

Kerry Reilly

"I invested in a fleet of trucks that were carting aggregates for a ready mixed concrete contractor, and it was that association that led me to a quarry stripping contract at Winstone’s Lunns Ave Quarry in 1998." 

Starting with the job of removing and recycling all uncontrolled fill, the contract was later extended to include the recovery and trucking of the last 900,000 tonnes of rock quarried at the site.  

In 2000, Kerry moved his operation to the old Fulton Hogan quarry at Reliable Way in Penrose—a quarry-stripping project that presented its own set of unique challenges.  
"Because of the high-density encroachment on the site’s boundaries, all rock extraction had to be carried out without recourse to blasting."    

Kerry’s solution, and one that has close links to his current venture, was the purchase of a 121-tonne Demag excavator and a specialised ripping tyne, which delivered a much better recovery option for the site’s remaining rock deposits.

This same equipment mix was used successfully at the Hikurangi Quarry in Northland where it helped overcome the extraction challenges caused by the site’s pillar shaped deposits.    

It was around this time that Kerry received resource consent for the first stage of the Meremere quarry. Starting with 22 hectares and growing to around 120 during its operational life, this quarry was a rich source of quality greywacke aggregates until it closed during 2020.      

"While I was at Meremere, we were researching alternative options to blasting and became aware of the Xcentric range of rippers. Based on my experience at the Mt Wellington and Reliable Way sites, I wanted a safe option that would let us work the more difficult areas of the quarry."

The XR35 that was purchased during 2012 provided a number of immediate operational and safety benefits. These included the ability to operate safely right out to the edges of benches, easier on-site sorting, and a more cost-effective method for extraction of lower value aggregates. It also delivered a 50% reduction in their overall extraction costs.

The XR35 has now become the core operational tool for Kerry’s latest business, Aggregate Solutions Ltd, and it provides him with a solution to problems that older quarries are currently facing.

In many cases, excavation has migrated from the quarry’s centre towards site boundaries, many of which are now surrounded by industrial or residential neighbours. At a number of these locations, the original benches had been blown out, and without recourse to blasting, reinstating those benches and retrieval of the remaining deposits can be difficult.

"With the XR operating on the end of the excavator boom, we can reach nine metres up and eight metres down, and this allows us to reinstate benches from either the quarry floor or higher up. Compared to breakers, it’s also very quiet, so any noise-related problems are significantly reduced."

Kerry has also found that the XR delivers cost-effective performance, and at a recent project, working in hard greywacke, the attachment retrieved more than 10,000 cubic metres at a cost of 1.35c a tonne. As well as reducing blasting costs, problems associated with site closure and fly rock are also avoided.

Xcentric Ripper Mining Series is a hydraulic excavator attachment designed for the mass extraction of rock in mining, quarrying, and civil applications. Recognised as the world’s most productive, reliable, and technologically advanced hydraulic ripper, it features a patented system of ‘Impact Technology by accumulation of energy’ and is in most instances, up to five times more productive than hydraulic breakers.

Boss Attachments is the Australasian agent for the Xcentric Ripper range, and models are available to suit excavators ranging from five to 150 tonnes.

For more information, contact Paul Herbison 027 290 8306 or visit bossattachments.co.nz.

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