Hall Construction commenced works in November 2016 at the UK’s only open cast gypsum mine in Newark, Nottingham.
The contract continues a long working partnership with processing contractor Banner Contracts, also from the North East, operating the mine on behalf of Saint Gobain Formula. Hall Construction are drawing on their experience in open cast coal mining across England and Scotland to extract the high purity gypsum, lying in thin seams ranging from 40 to 60m below the ground.
The 5 year contract, with the potential for a 3 years extension, is looking to excavate 2,800,000m3 of material each year. The quarry will produce over 1,250,000 tonnes of gypsum, for use in everyday products from plasterboard, manufactured at Saint Gobain’s British Gypsum sites, to plaster used in dentistry, ceiling mouldings and beer making. The slender seams provide a novel challenge to the business, balancing of maximum extraction with high purity in a world where the smallest contamination can cause a huge variance in the colour of the end products.
Hall Construction has invested heavily in new plant to complete the contract; including 6 Volvo A40G articulated dump trucks, a Volvo EC750E excavator and has further equipment on order. To supplement the above, over 25 pieces of plant ranging from excavators, dozers, graders, rollers and dump trucks are all in operation. As part of the contract, the company has retained 24 experienced employees, through TUPE agreements, and directly employed further employees from the local area.
Stephen Hall, Managing Director at Hall Construction, explained “following the demise of the coal industry we have began to diversify our interests and we hope this is the start of good working relationship with Saint Gobain Formula”.
