Clanton Classic Stone » Project: Dayton Property Evaluation » Country: USA » Location: Ohio » Commodity: Aggregates As part of their strategic planning exercise Hilltop Basic Resources decided to divest their three Dayton sand and gravel operations in Fairborn, Enon and West Carrolton. Morgan Worldwide was retained to develop a resource evaluation and mine plan for each property. The Resource Evaluation consisted of numerous components including a bathymetric survey of each of the 19 lakes. This survey using a depth sounder combined with GPS provide the input data for the three-dimensional modeling of the pit floor. The historic drilling data at the sites was limited to shallow drilling (approx 40 feet max) to the top of a clay horizon. Review of other available data indicated the presence of substantial reserves at depth. MW supervised the sonic drilling of twenty drillholes, which confirmed the extent of the reserves and the presence of two clay horizons. Modeling of the sand and gravel reserves was conducted for each of the ponds and also for ultimate lakes with the results presented for each reserve category. Using the resource data various mining approaches were developed to extract the reserves at depth and to reduce operating costs. Based on the review of approaches, the use of a clamshell dredge was the preferred alternative as it had; low operating costs, could extract the reserves at depth and also mine through the clay horizons. To verify the ability to mine through clay MW reviewed seven European sand and gravel operations who were consistently mining clay. Following completion of the reports MW assisted Hilltop in presenting the information to interested buyers at a series of briefings. The divestiture process was successfully completed with the purchase of the three properties by Colas. © 2004 Morgan Worldwide, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Contact