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Clear skies. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable..
Clear skies. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable.
MOVING STONE – A haul truck readies to take a load of gypsum out of the Northwest Quarry.
HAUL TRUCK – USG’s haul trucks have the ability to carry 60 tons of gypsum from the quarry to staging areas before over the road trucks are loaded with the rock.
PRESENTATION – USG Plant Manager Jon Blazic, at right, gives a presentation on the current operations of the USG Alabaster plant, Friday, for a group of visitors.
TOURS – A group of visitors wait to load onto a tour bus during the Friday USG Alabaster plant open house event.
STOCKPILE – A giant pile of mined gypsum stone waits to be loaded onto large trucks for transportation to factories and other locations around the state.
NORTHWEST QUARRY – A string of tour busses drive down a ramp into the USG Northwest Quarry cut during a Friday tour.
NEW PLANT MANAGER –USG Alabaster Plant Manager Jon Blazic, left, recently took over for longtime plant manager Matthew Craig, at right. Craig will remain working for USG as an outside consultant.
MOVING STONE – A haul truck readies to take a load of gypsum out of the Northwest Quarry.
HAUL TRUCK – USG’s haul trucks have the ability to carry 60 tons of gypsum from the quarry to staging areas before over the road trucks are loaded with the rock.
PRESENTATION – USG Plant Manager Jon Blazic, at right, gives a presentation on the current operations of the USG Alabaster plant, Friday, for a group of visitors.
TOURS – A group of visitors wait to load onto a tour bus during the Friday USG Alabaster plant open house event.
STOCKPILE – A giant pile of mined gypsum stone waits to be loaded onto large trucks for transportation to factories and other locations around the state.
NORTHWEST QUARRY – A string of tour busses drive down a ramp into the USG Northwest Quarry cut during a Friday tour.
NEW PLANT MANAGER –USG Alabaster Plant Manager Jon Blazic, left, recently took over for longtime plant manager Matthew Craig, at right. Craig will remain working for USG as an outside consultant.
ALABASTER Twp. – Hundreds of members of the public came out to the United States Gypsum (USG) plant in Alabaster Township, Friday, to get a look at giant equipment, check out the quarry and learn about what USG workers have been pulling out of Iosco County’s ground for 120 years.
They also got a lesson on the many uses that gypsum, the ivory-colored dusty rock, has in our everyday lives, thanks to USG staff.
Anyone who has ever hammered a nail into drywall — a gypsum product in nearly everyone’s home — knows the telltale white dust that results. That is just one product made from gypsum. But what Jon Blazic, the new plant manager for the Alabaster USG plant told the public is gypsum is in many more household products.
In fact, he said that the average person eats around 26 pounds of gypsum in their lifetime. Want some candy? Gypsum is an ingredient in Hershey bars. Brushing your teeth after your sugary treat? Gypsum powder is a common ingredient in toothpaste. Enjoying a slice of bread? Gypsum is a preservative in bread and many other foods. Going to the pub for a pint of ale? Gypsum is used in the brewing process.
Additionally, the material is used in agriculture as a soil conditioner and in the production of portland cement. Blazic, who recently replaced longtime plant manager Matthew Craig, worked to greet the public and tell them everything gypsum during the open house.
Blazic explained the mining process to the public, and updated those visiting on the company’s plan to open up the new Avery Quarry, named after one of the first individuals who discovered gypsum in Alabaster, Sewell Lee Avery, who founded the company in 1902.
According to Blazic, he said that the Avery Quarry will begin when the State of Michigan approves the company’s wetland mitigation permit, and could start during the latter half of next year, or in early 2024. He said currently the active quarry, called Northwest Quarry, will begin to be filled in and the land reclamation to its natural state, and then cuts into the ground will begin to create the Avery Quarry.
Blazic said that 45 feet of soil, called “overburden” in the mining industry, has to be removed before gypsum is available to be mined. That material layer is roughly 20 feet thick, and is quarried from a special surfacer machine — much like is used to take layers of asphalt off highways — and then hauled to a loading facility where gravel trucks haul 50 ton loads to different plants, including the River Rough manufacturing plant.
There are three total layers of gypsum that can be mined, each with a layer of shale between. The shale is mined and used in the creation of mining roads after the gypsum is mined out of the quarry, the overburden is then deposited back into the quarry, and a new cut begins.
Blazic said in Avery’s time mining was much the same, but an extremely labor intensive process. Miners would have hand-drilled holes into the earth, which were then loaded with explosives, to blow the gypsum layer out of the ground. They would then use a tram system, loading gypsum rocks by hand onto wooden trams, which were then tugged to the lakeshore with mules.
The rock would be loaded onto sailboats and transported around the great lakes for different production, including things like wall plaster. Currently, USG only uses over the road trucking for transportation. He said, however, they are currently in talks with railroad officials to transport rock via rail, and if expansion is enough they would consider reconstructing their gypsum crib in Tawas Bay, that was decommissioned several years ago.
He said the company is investigating the costs of getting the old system up and running again.
But why is USG working to expand its mining? Blazic said as the country shifts to alternative energy sources outside of coal fire production plants, there is an increased need for gypsum. This is because coal plants product fly ash — a synthetic type of gypsum — and with fewer plants online there are fewer stocks of fly ash to be had.
Blazic said the tour, which is the first one they’ve had for the public since the pandemic, was to give a view of what exactly is done at the plant and to show the public they are trustworthy stewards with the land.
“When you look at mining overall a lot of people think of coal mining, they think of companies just knocking mountains over, and that is not what we do here,” he said.
Blazic said the company goes under great pains to reclaim the land after gypsum is mined from the ground. He said the quarry also provides good opportunities for the community.
“We are providing an opportunity for people to have great jobs and we’re giving back to the community by spending money in the area, but from this standpoint we want people to understand what we do so they don’t have that bad idea what mining is overall,” he said. “This is just to meet with our neighbors and get to know them.”
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The Iosco County News-Herald and Oscoda Press' Autumn Guide 2022
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