Going underground at Perryfield
A new Volvo L220H loading shovel has been ordered and delivered to Portland Stone Firms Ltd to spearhead the company’s relatively new mining operations at the Perryfield Quarry site on the Isle of Portland
The new 32-tonne loading shovel was chosen by Portland Stone Firms following a competitive tender process, according to Quarry Manager, Andrew Jackson. “We started our mining operation here at Perryfield Quarry back in March and required a suitably sized loading shovel to extract and handle dimensional stone from the underground faces of the mine,” he says. “We found the team from Volvo to be very proactive in working with us to agree the specification of the L220H and to check all the details were correct to ensure the machine would do ‘what it says on the tin’. The overall package was very competitive, so all-in-all, this prompted us to choose Volvo once again.” The Perryfield site has had much experience with operating Volvo loading shovels, having
previously run the larger 50-tonne L330E towards the end of 2002 when the stone was being extracted at the quarry, and prior to this in 1996, when a L180C ran for eighteen years. “Back then, the quarry was operated by the Hanson Bath and Portland Stone Company and the L180 was an impressive machine, clocking up 31,000 hours undergoing only a transmission change in all that time,” adds Andrew. “So if our new L220H can perform in a similar manner, we’ll be particularly satisfied.” The L220H has been supplied complete with an hydraulic attachment bracket, a 4.7m3
“We found the team from Volvo to be very proactive in working with us to agree the specification of the L220H and to check all the details were correct to ensure the machine would do ‘what it says on the tin’. The overall package was very competitive, so all-in-all, this prompted us to choose Volvo once again.”
general-purpose bucket and 1,500mm heavy-duty block forks capable of handling blocks weighing up to 24 tonnes. To facilitate this, the machine has been equipped with an additional block-handling counterweight, XLDD2A L5 wheel and tyre assemblies, a fire suppression system, an RDS Loadmaster weighing system, Sensor vision, a Brigade white- noise reversing alarm, flashing blue rear lights and a full lighting package. This enables the machine to be used primarily for extracting stone blocks in situ, then carry them to the mine entrance where they are sorted and cut to customer requirements. The L220H is also used to carry the sawn material up to a marshalling area at the top of the quarry where it’s loaded onto trailers destined for either customers directly or to Portland Stone Firm’s cutting shops – and to aid this activity, the machine benefits from Volvo’s ride-control or boom suspension system. In addition, the machine is used to clear waste material from the mining process which is disposed of in the old quarry workings at the Perryfield site. Portland Stone Firms Ltd has been involved in the extraction of Portland stone for over a
hundred years, operating from a 680-acre estate, quarrying oolitic limestone reputed to be 145 million years old from the Whitbed and Roach seams found only on the Isle of Portland. In March this year, the company switched its extraction operations from quarrying to mining at Perryfield where the already exposed face has allowed the company to mine directly into the beds yielding the famous stone and giving access to over 680,000m3 of reserves. The change to the mining process has made an immediate and positive impact on the local environment as well. The highly desirable material is still sought after for prestigious buildings such as London’s Chelsea Barracks development project where Portland Stone is once again to be used. ■
In 2002 the Perryfield quarry was using a Volvo L330E to handle stone blocks
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