Metso Minerals opened its new North American production facility Nov. 15 for crushing and screening equipment in Columbia, S.C.

More than 300 customers, equipment distributors and invited guests attended the open house, held at the new corporate office and manufacturing facility located at 10145 Two Notch Road.

The plant festivities included an extensive outdoor equipment display, plant tours and product presentations. The open house also featured helicopter tours of the nearby Lake Murray Backup Dam, completed in 2005. H. B. Mellott Inc., one of Metso Minerals’ customers, played a key role in the construction of backup dam.

Jorma Eloranta, president of Metso Corporation, greeted the open house guests, along with Jouni Salo, president of Metso Minerals’ Crushing and Screening Business Line; John Olsen, president of Metso Minerals’ North America Region; and other senior executives. Also on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony was Jennifer Joy Wilson, president and chief executive officer of the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association.

Metso’s new cone crusher, the Nordberg HP4, was unveiled at the open house by John Stolowski, general manager, North American Marketing. Other new products introduced to the North American market included the Lokotrack LT3054, LT1315 and LT1415 mobile crushing plants; the ST458 mobile screening plant; and the Barmac portable crushing plant.

The Columbia facility, the result of a $10-million investment, manufactures screening and vibrating equipment for the aggregates production and construction markets. The facility also houses Metso’s North American customer service and warehouse operations for crushing and screening equipment.

“Our new facility provides us with manufacturing and assembly space as well as warehousing for our North American parts inventory. This facility will enhance our productivity, as well as reduce operating costs. We are consolidating what was previously spread out among three U.S. sites into our new facility,” Olsen said.

The plant covers more than 40 acres (16 ha) and has 203,000 sq. ft. (19,000 sq m) of factory and office space, offering ample room for future assembly of mobile crushing plants and select cone crushers. It features 60 ft. wide by 483-ft. long high bays with overhead cranes. Metso currently employs 60 people at Columbia, and that number is expected to increase to approximately 150 when the plant is fully operational.

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