Blubber Bay Quarry Blubber Bay Aggregates Pictures Contact Us
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A little history…
The north end of Texada Island was surveyed for industrial mining property in 1884. The Blubber Bay area had been explored and determined as a potential limestone deposit just before this date.
Blubber Bay Quarry has enjoyed continuous mining since 1907. In the early days, the quarry was mined by hand which required the workers to descend 300 feet down a vertical face into the pit. The drilling accommodated today by huge mechanical drills was done by holding a steel bar in one hand and driving it into the rock face with a large hammer in the other. The drilling was followed by pushing volatile charges of dynamite into the drill holes then igniting the fuses, of dubious quality, for the blast. Each of the pit workers had to keep up to the others to avoid the conflict of drilling whilst the fellow beside was blasting. The blasted rock would then be loaded into wheelbarrows thence into a bucket gondola for transfer out of the pit to the crushers and kilns.
Ash Grove Cement Co., Blubber Bay Quarry - Since 1884
The bay itself had been utilized as a whaling station as early as the 1700’s due to the wonderful shelter it provided for sailing vessels. The protection of Blubber bay affords year round loading in any wind conditions for today’s shipping traffic.
The primary market for the limestone in the early days was for the chemical lime and plaster. Today the rock is shipped, by barges up to 17,500 tons, to customers requiring quality limestone for use in aggregates, chemical lime, cement and agricultural limestone.
The chemical grade limestone is utilized in everything from steel making to pharmaceuticals.
Roughly, 750,000 tons a year of cement grade rock is shipped to the Ash Grove cement plant in Seattle each year.
Other limestone uses are sugar manufacture and mine tailings remediation.
As quality limestone with an indicated deposit of thousands of years, the tidewater location accommodates economical transportation of the Blubber Bay limestone from Alaska to California.
Announcing:
Blubber Bay Aggregates
Purity of Limestone - Strength of Mag
17,000 ton self-unloading deliveries to YOUR site
Asphalt, Concrete, Ballast, Structural Fill, Preload
1/2" to 6" sizing -- Sharp cuts -- Clean
80-year continuous operations
Reserves, Reserves, Reserves
Blubber Bay Quarry Blubber Bay Aggregates Pictures Contact Us
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Page last modified on: September 19, 1999
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