Episode 42: Rob Duke talks Armada Materials, M&A and more

Rob Duke, founder of Armada Materials, joins the show to discuss the origins and growth of his rapidly emerging company. Launched through the 2023 acquisition of Volunteer Materials in Tennessee, Armada has since completed a couple of smaller deals as it builds out its platform in the aggregates industry.

Duke pulls back the curtain this episode on Armada’s merger and acquisition activity, offering insights into the company’s expansion strategy and what’s driving its momentum.

Beyond the company’s backstory, Duke reflects on the state of the market at the midpoint of 2025. He also shares his personal journey into the aggregates space, his perspective on the evolving M&A landscape, and the one business challenge that consistently keeps him up at night.

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Thank you to our show sponsor, Kemper Equipment.

EastRock Solutions is now part of the Kemper Group – and together, they’re raising the bar on parts availability, equipment solutions and turnkey plant design. From the pit to the stockpile, Kemper Group has got your operation covered. 

 To learn more, visit kemperequipment.com or call (610)-273-2066.

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For 108 years, Pit & Quarry magazine has been the premier monthly aggregate processing information source. Through multiple platforms, we deliver the very latest in equipment and technology news and information that is critical for safely achieving the highest level of efficiency and profitability. Editors Kevin Yanik and Jack Kopanski cover the market in print, online and through e-newsletters. As respected industry insiders, they moderate the annual Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference and speak at industry conferences and meetings.

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Transcript

Kevin Yanik: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Drilling Deeper. I’m Kevin Yanik, Pit & Quarry‘s editor-in-chief. We’ve got an interview on tap with Armada Materials (website↗) founder and CEO Rob Duke today. Look forward to talking about a variety of topics with Rob. But before we begin, a word from our show sponsor. Did you know East Rock Solutions is now part of the Kemper Group? And together, they’re raising the bar on parts availability, equipment solutions and turnkey plant design. From the pit to the stockpile, Kemper Group has got your operation covered. To learn more, visit kemperequipment.com or call 610-273-2066. Thanks to Kemper.

Well, as mentioned at the top, we’ve got Rob Duke, an interview with Rob on tap for today’s episode 42 of the podcast. I had the opportunity to visit with Rob right at the end of April as we’re looking into May, and he’s with Armada Materials, which is a relatively new company founded in 2022. In 2023 they actually made a really sizeable deal that essentially got the company off the ground. They did a platform deal with Volunteer Materials in Tennessee, and that essentially got them into the Nashville market, a huge, bustling market. Anybody who’s been to that part of Tennessee has seen how it’s grown. Always cranes in the air, traffic, population flooding there. That’s a really solid first market to get into, as it just seems like that’s one of the growing cities in America. But Rob and I really got into a host of topics, you know, talking about everything from the business, the history of it, how it got off the ground and who was involved in that. We talked about the Nashville market and surrounding areas, as Armada has gotten into Kentucky as well with a recent acquisition, and Rob’s going to talk about that as well.

You know, 2025 has been interesting in terms of the business environment, so we heard a little bit from Rob during our visit about interest rates and inflation and some of the headwinds that producers like an Armada Materials are feeling. M&A, mergers and acquisitions, we talked a little bit more broadly at length in terms of what buyers are looking at here in 2025, and same thing for sellers and what the opportunities are there here in this year. And lastly, we brought it home with safety. I kind of asked Rob at the back end of our interview what keeps him up at night, and he took it to safety and the value that that is at Armada Materials and how they go about approaching safety.

Rob has an interesting career, he’s gonna get into that at the top of our interview we’ll hear in just a minute or two, but didn’t necessarily start in construction materials. He eventually found his way to Rinker, and anybody out there who’s seen his name or knows Rob knows him as a guy who was last with CRH. He led the south division there, major enterprise for one of the top producing companies in the country. And eventually he got the itch, wanted to start his own enterprise, and he did that in tandem with family and friends and some peers in the industry. So, we’re gonna hear all about Armada Materials and the things that are top of mind for founder and CEO, Rob Duke. Without further ado, let’s welcome in Rob and play our interview.

Interview Starts

KY: Rob, really appreciate you getting together with us here today. Obviously you have an extensive history in the construction materials industry, and your pathway now is on that of Armada Materials after that Volunteer Materials deal from a couple of years back now. But tell us a little about yourself and how you found yourself ultimately working in the construction materials space.

Rob Duke: Yeah, thanks Kevin. Thanks for having me, excited to be here today. The early part of my career, I moved around a bit into some other industries before I landed in the aggregate space. I studied engineering in college, and I worked initially in the oil and gas industry. I actually did … my first job was an intern at a oil refinery in Eastern Kentucky where I worked kind of throughout college, when I was getting my degree at Carnegie Mellon. Got out, went into the chemical industry for an industrial gas company for a number of years. Did that both in the US and in Europe, just basically designing and starting up large oxygen plants for for industrial customers. And then went back to school, got my MBA, and then changed careers and industries – ended up working for Merck in the pharmaceutical industry before I had a college friend that really changed the trajectory of my life and for my family as well, and brought us down to Florida to work for this great company called Rinker Materials in 2002. Rinker, at the time, was a large, vertically integrated aggregates company with a huge presence in Florida. We moved down to West Palm Beach and I started out as an acquisitions guy for Rinker, where we bought small, family-run construction material companies. We did a few corporate carve-outs.

Then I moved into sales, sales management, general management for their aggregates business in Florida. At the time, I mean, the market was really strong, and our … We did probably about almost 45 million tons of aggregate sales in just in Florida. So it was a good time to enter the industry.

KY: So here comes 2023, Armada Materials emerges following that platform deal with Volunteer Materials. Ultimately, there had to be a lot of legwork going into that. I mean, you had this idea and/or you or some peers in the industry got together. Tell us kind of what was transpiring leading up to that Volunteer Materials deal, Rob. And obviously, you touched on mergers and acquisitions, I mean, this is kind of your forte, and this is kind of how you guys have gotten off the ground and grown so far.

RD: Yeah, yeah. I started Armada in 2022, Kevin. Prior to that, I was working for CRH. I was running a large division for them. After my time at Rinker, I had moved over to CRH and had about almost a 15 year career with them in a variety of roles. Really enjoyed my time, was running a large division, but I’ve always had this inkling to go out and start my own company. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and maybe step away from a larger corporate role and get back to starting and running a smaller enterprise.

I was doing a lot of acquisitions at CRH, and thought I could step out and do that on my own. So, after a brief time away from CRH, about a year later, I started Armada Materials and basically myself, some friends and family put some money into the business, and then I had asked a few industry people that I had worked with and got to know and liked and enjoyed and were mentors of me throughout my career to be advisors to Armada. So, those people have joined our advisory board. That would be Karl Watson Jr., Doug Rauh and Michael Brady, and they were really helpful, particularly in my early days of trying to get the business off the ground. Gave me a lot of good advice and mentorship through that process.

I ended up realizing I needed deeper pockets to go fuel the strategy of Armada, which was doing acquisitions in the southern half of the US, of aggregate and asphalt companies, family-run businesses. So I had met with a bunch of different investment groups. I met with some family offices and then several private equity groups. One of those groups I had met several years prior, I had met a couple of partners from a firm called Kelso & Company out of New York and I really liked them. I mean, they were just great people. They had a reputation for being outstanding partners with their portfolio companies. They were a little longer term minded than some of the other private equity groups that I had met, and they loved our space. So it was a couple meetings with them to kind of reacquaint ourselves, and we quickly formed a broader partnership, and we ended up doing our first acquisition about nine months later, which was the Volunteer group of companies in Tennessee.

KY: You touched on aggregates and asphalt in the southern US, Rob. I wonder if you had to define what your vision is, or how you envision Armada coming to be, I mean, it’s still a young company. I’m sure you have maybe a five year, 10 year beyond plan, but what’s your niche? And I suppose as you guys are starting to build up here, what do you think separates you, or what would you like to separate your company versus any other one that’s out there?

RD: Yeah, I think for Armada, our focus and strategy is on leveraging a decentralized management structure, which I saw in action at Rinker Materials, and then my early days with CRH we had a very decentralized structure as well. I think that works really well in our space. This is a local business at the end of the day. We’re buying multi-generational family companies where legacy and brand are incredibly important. Having that local presence is vitally important. So, one of our differentiating approaches in doing acquisitions is that we retain those things. We retain the brand, the people, preserving the culture and the legacy of those companies, which kind of sets us apart in the space sort of, of acquisitions in our in our industry.

And then what we do as well as even … We’re not completely hands off. We have capital to spend, and we work with those teams to identify high return projects that might help fuel additional growth, and we provide that capital and guidance, resources and support to help those businesses grow.

KY: Rob, can you maybe detail a bit for us how the Volunteer deal essentially kind of set you guys up? You know, platform deal, good size market. And we’ve seen a couple of, I suppose you can call them bolt-on deals, including one this year. So, I guess tell us how that kind of sets you up for the future. And you know, as you’re looking outward here, the rest of ’25, maybe into ’26 I don’t know, because deals take time to come to fruition. But what’s transpiring out there, broadly and or specifically, as it pertains to Armada right now with M&A?

RD: Yeah, great questions. Since that Volunteer acquisition, we’ve done two additional bolt-on transactions that you mentioned. We bought a company called Wright Paving, which was a business that was located sort of to the east of our position in Nashville, Tennessee, just southeast of us, which came along to two asphalt plants and a limestone quarry. And then we, late last year, we bought another business out of federal bankruptcy court, which is Drake’s Creek Stone. It was formerly owned by a company called Charles DeWeese Construction, and it was an opportunity that we identified at Armada pretty early on, fit our profile. It fit the platform around Nashville, which is a market we like and we want to continue to grow in.

We started basically bird-dogging the trustee early days, and then he allowed us to become the stalking horse in that process, and then we prevailed in the bankruptcy auction. Then we’ve had to reactivate things and bring in a team there to restart the quarry, which we did earlier this year, so we’re real excited about that position. And as a follow up to your question, yeah, we continue to look, we look high and low for acquisition opportunities. Our strategy, Kevin, is to focus on aggregates and asphalt businesses, largely in the southern half of the United States. We spend a lot of time … The area that I ran at CRH was the southern US. It’s kind of the markets I know, the families that I know are in that area. We’ll go up a little further north for the right type of business. We’ll go up into the lower Midwest, Mid-Atlantic states, for the right type of company.

KY: What do you find the appetite to be for buyers here in ’25? And if you want to look back on ’24, it seemed like we saw a variety of deals, big and small, some really big deals take place industry-wide. So, when you think about just the want from the buyer’s standpoint, to go after deals at this point in time here in ’25 – I guess given some of the economic circumstances swirling around as well – what are you finding as you engage dealers in these sorts of conversations?

RD: Yeah, I think there’s … our pipeline is pretty active, pretty full of opportunities, and they vary in stage. You know, myself and Travis Raitt, my colleague who heads up acquisitions for us, spend a lot of time developing relationships, pursuing acquisitions. I would say there’s a healthy appetite among other buyers, to your point. There’s a lot of interest in the sector. A lot from strategic players that are in a strong cash position with a lot of financial flexibility, and we’ve seen some, as you guys have reported at Pit & Quarry, some really big deals in the space in the last few years. I think there’s going to be a continued appetite, particularly among strategics, to continue putting that money to work and doing acquisitions and potentially select greenfield investments as well.

Yeah, I think at its core, the drilling, blasting, crushing and processing of aggregates is going to largely stay the same, though I do think the technology around our business is going to change significantly. You know, we recently were asked to take a look at AI technologies out there, and my initial reaction, Kevin, was, “Well, this really isn’t applicable to our space at all. You know? It’s not going to really change what we do.” But we’re already seeing AI impact our business in ways I never thought was possible before, particularly like in the paving business. If you think about estimating and the rules of thumb and the heuristics that an estimator uses, I’ve been super impressed. Our team, on their own, has done some neat things using some generative AI technology to really help streamline … Wouldn’t say it’s going to replace people, but it’s going to make us more effective in how we look at doing work in the paving side of our business.

So I do think you’ll see more automation certainly take hold as sort of autonomous vehicles, and we’ve seen that. You know, I think Luck Stone, you profiled them here recently. They’ve done some really interesting things with some autonomous haul trucks, and I think some of that will continue to develop in the years ahead.

KY: Just the idea of being in this industry, being an owner or a business owner, Rob, the idea of workforce, you talked on that as maybe an alternate, I suppose, in some cases, to automate. You know, there’s automation that’s what may be making up for some loss, and/or AI coming online. But you know, when you think about workforce and what’s transpiring there, it’s gotta be one of the bigger challenges. Or, you know, when you think about establishing a venture, growing a venture here, is that challenge number one? I mean, when you think about the idea of getting into what you’re doing, getting into this space and trying to build something from scratch?

RD: Yeah, I mean it’s a challenge when you’re starting up any company, and trying to recruit talent is always a challenge. But, you know, I’ve been very fortunate to have gotten to know some really talented people that have joined us here at Armada, and within the Volunteer platform company as well, that are really just excellent, excellent at what they do. Yeah, people are … outside of pursuing acquisitions people and people development is a huge part of what we all do at Armada, making sure we have the right people in the right seats on the bus.

And to your point, some of the sellers, some of the reasoning for some of the sellers that we’ve met have been that the people challenges have just worn at them, and that they’ve had a really tough time trying to find people to replace people at all levels in their organization. I’m optimistic, though, and I know that’s a challenge for us, it’s a challenge that’s in the industry, trying to get more, particularly new people, early in career, attracted to our space has been a challenge. And I know you’ve all reported on that heavily, but I’m optimistic. I absolutely love what we do in our in our industry, I think it’s a great thing, and I think we just gotta tell our story better to attract people and get out there and let people see what we do. Once they do it, once they get into it, they fall in love with it. I think we’re just, we’re not great at marketing ourselves as an industry.

We remain focused on our strategy, though, and I think our unique approach to the market, what we offer owners of multi-generational businesses, may be a little different than maybe what somebody else offers. We’re smaller, we have sort of minimal bureaucracy. The Armada team, it’s a small group of us at the parent company level, there’s only four of us today. We like to keep sort of all the … everything out in the field, in the local company. So, Armada’s … The Tennessee, Kentucky platform is about 250 employees, and we kind of let the management team focus on that business there. And so again, we offer sellers something a little bit different.

And I think they’re still … On the selling side, Kevin, I would say there’s a strong interest in doing transactions and maybe monetizing ownership in some of these companies. And they’re, again, all various stages, but what we’re finding generally is that they’re on generation two, three or four, some of these companies, and the ownership gets more diffuse to sort of spread out exponentially, as you can imagine, as the share ownership among heirs starts to spread out. And the number of owners that are active in the day-to-day running of the business is fewer and fewer. So I think owners of companies in the aggregate space, in the asphalt space, are taking a hard look at whether they want to monetize all or some of their position. And at Armada can cater to both. If people wanna roll equity, we love that. If they’re looking just to monetize, we’re open to that as well.

KY: No, that’s been a challenge, and it’s an ongoing one. Although it seems like we’re making industry-wide some little gains there, and hopefully that translates to some bigger ones.

I wanted to ask more broadly, if you want to get into your markets, your market a little bit there. You touched on Nashville, and gosh, every time we set foot in Nashville it just seems like there’s more buildings going up, there’s more traffic and more population, which all translates to more aggregates. So, I can imagine that’s a big reason why you guys targeted Nashville and that surrounding area to begin with, Rob. But ’25, it’s been interesting starting out here. We hear things about tariffs and interest rates. Those are words, phrases making their ways into headlines. But I still think overall people are optimistic, albiet maybe cautiously at this point. So,what’s your take on where we are here as you and I are sitting down almost into May?

Rob, you talked about the dynamic out there, different size of companies. I mean, you’re with CRH, they’re the largest sand and gravel producer in the US. I mean, talked about a lot of big deals taking place in ’24. You also touched on the family businesses, talking about second, third, fourth generation. Yeah, I’ve seen some of those studies where you get to generation three and a lot of these companies, whether it’s our industry or not, they just don’t make it. I think you used the word diffuse. I mean, maybe the that third generation and beyond, just not into it. But I guess just with that is kind of a framework, and I don’t have any specifics on this or numbers, but when you think about our industry at large, Rob, we’ve become more corporate in nature. There’s still that family dynamic, and there’s still family companies everywhere. It’s a good sized industry. But what have you seen transpire in your 20 years in construction materials? And you know, as you look outward, thinking about Armada, what’s the dynamic? Like what’s the typical dynamic of an industry producer company going to be like five, ten plus years from now?

RD: Yeah, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head. Where we’re at right now, around the Nashville metro market in Middle Tennessee, we’re in a really great position. And again, it’s a local business, so it’s whatever’s happening in your local market. We see a lot of positive trends, and where our assets sit around Nashville, we’re just … sort of all the growth is moving in our direction. So, we still continue to see a lot of dirt turning, Kevin, across Middle Tennessee. I’m pretty optimistic about not only this year, but the long term for the markets that we’re in today.

And then of course we’ve spent a lot of time running around all over the US, particularly the southern half of the country, and there’s still a lot of optimism, and it’s still a lot of work and planning, I would say. With elevated higher interest rates, the Federal Reserve’s reluctance to start bringing those down to see where the tariff policies kind of land, I think we’re kind of in a holding pattern to see where that’s going to go. But again, I’m optimistic that all this will get resolved, that sort of the tariffs and the trade policy decisions that are being made today on a national and global level will get worked out in the months ahead and we’ll go back to economic growth again. I think everybody’s sort of a wait and see moment right now, but I do think It’ll all get resolved here in the months ahead.

KY: Yeah, it almost seems like it’s a battle between the public sector and the private sector, where there’s optimism around that public side, there’s dollars there, both on the federal front and a lot of states. I don’t know what Tennessee’s situation is there, and now you guys are into Kentucky, but I can imagine maybe they’re putting more dollars out there than some other states. But yeah, it seems like the private side, you know, when we say caution, that’s where the caution resides. If we can get some answers to questions here in ’25, I think, maybe not the floodgates opening up, but that could be additional projects that help to supplant what’s happening on that public front. Is that fair?

RD: Yeah, absolutely. And I think on the private side, again, I think it’s a very local market phenomenon that you got going on. I think Nashville, it continues to attract a lot of population migration into Middle Tennessee, and those people are going to need homes and roads and schools and restaurants, and so we still see a lot of that activity happening. And then on the public side, again, in Tennessee, the Governor Lee has put out a request for an additional billion dollar influx into Tennessee DOT for the next fiscal year(↗). So, that’s in front of the state legislature right now. I’m hopeful that some version of that will get passed, but that will be about a … if you look at where TDOT’s spending is, that’s about a 25 percent year on year jump, and badly needed. There’s been public outcry across the Nashville metro market, as that region has grown tremendously over the last call it 10 to 20 years. Public infrastructure has lagged a bit. And I think Tennessee and the governor and the Secretary of the DOT rightfully is saying, “Hey, we need to step up here. Not only maintain and resurface our road network across the state, but we also need to look at lane expansion projects,” and they’re exploring some of those types of projects right now around Nashville.

KY: Rob, Armada is getting into Kentucky now with its recent acquisitions. What are you seeing to the north there from your base there in Tennessee?

RD: Yeah, we’re right across the state line. So, it’s about a 40-45 minute drive from Nashville to our quarry in Franklin, Kentucky, is where it’s located, and that’s uniquely positioned. So, not only is there a lot of growth moving north of Nashville and south of Nashville, but there’s growth in the town north of us in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which is an amazing city, and in its own right has got a lot of activity and a lot of growth associated with. It’s one area of sort of, you look at the growth projections, the economic projections around the state of Kentucky, that’s one area of Kentucky that is sort of in the green in the years ahead. You’ve got good population growth dynamics, you’ve got affordability, you’ve got available land to construct both residential communities, as well as industry. We’re very bullish on South Central Kentucky.

KY: Rob, maybe just a couple final questions for you, but we touched on a lot of different topics here, but when you think about your optimism for the industry, or whatever opportunities you see going forward, whether it’s this year or beyond, I guess, what is the opportunity, or what are some of the opportunities that you think about as a producer? And then on the flip side, I know we touch on some of the more negative stuff, the interest rates, inflation, trade policy and all that. So there’s a lot swirling there, a lot of headwinds, but anything else that kind of keeps you up at night as a business owner these days?

RD: Yeah, I would say safety is always at the forefront of my mind, the safety of our and well being of our employees. We’ree’re vertically integrated in Tennessee, Kentucky. We’re in aggregates, we’re in asphalt, we’re in paving, we’re in ready-mix concrete, we’re in road striping, we have a trucking business. So we’re moving a lot of equipment, people and materials around Middle Tennessee. And so what keeps me up at night is I’m genuinely concerned to make sure that we’re doing everything we can as an organization to keep all those employees returning home the way they got to work every day. And so I would tell you that the leadership team that we have in that market is really dialed in a lot of them came from CRH. These were people that I knew and worked with. And again, CRH has a great safety program.

And, you know, it’s all about frontline engagement, Kevin. It’s about working and getting people involved in the safety process, in the front line. It’s not about managers running around with clipboards. You know, we firmly believe that to really move the needle in safety, you have to engage your front line, and our team’s doing a terrific job of winning the hearts and minds of employees to come along that journey with us.

KY: Is that a challenge, or is it just something you have to, as you’re an acquiring company, a new site, it’s people are who are new to you, you’re new to them. I guess, how do you how do you illustrate your priority on safety there and make sure that everyone’s on the same page?

RD: We start by creating the right environment where people feel like they have the ability to speak up and talk about safety in their work environment. So that’s the first step, is asking them, engaging them. The second step is to actually listen, hear and respond to what they have to say. And a lot of companies don’t get past the first step, let alone the second step, and I think that’s where you can fall short. So being receptive and creating a safe environment for people to share and kind of start engaging in the safety process,. We put a little bit of structure around it, just to facilitate those discussions.

It starts off with something as simple as a toolbox talk pre-shift and post-shift. Five to ten minutes, let’s talk about, let’s game plan this, guys. Very much like any sport event that you’re going to do, right? You want to kind of huddle up, talk about the game plan for that shift, what’s happening, any unique challenges. Are we going to be working at elevated levels, how are we going to do that safely as we know? What about lockout, tag out if we have to go in and work on a particular conveyor or crusher? So all those things are critically important, and just having those conversations is really our first sort of starter on the safety journey. And then we get into much more deeper topics and dedicated training, but really engaging people through those initial discussions gets the ball rolling.

KY: Well Rob, I really appreciate all the time you’ve given us here today, and we touched on a variety of topics. Is there any final messaging you want to put out there to our listeners on Drilling Deeper here?

RD: No, I love the podcast. Big fans of what you guys are doing, and thanks for the time today, and appreciate you letting me talk a little about Armada Materials.

KY: For sure. Pit & Quarry will be keeping tabs on all things Armada going forward, and Rob, again, great to have you on the show.

RD: Thanks, Kevin. Same here. Appreciate it.

Interview Ends

KY: Well, that was Rob Duke. Again, thank you Rob, from Armada Materials. He’s the founder and CEO of that organization, young up-and-coming enterprise in Tennessee and reaching into Kentucky at this point. But, I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit with Rob, learn about Armada Materials, hear about their business model, vertically integrated. Get into aggregates, very much so. It was interesting to hear, too, about the strategy and how they’re pursuing growth. Looking at M&A as that’s so much rooted in Rob and what his work was at CRH prior to Armada. Also great to hear about safety and how they value that as a priority in their operations.

I think during our interview, too, we talked about tariffs. And again, this was an interview from a few weeks back, but you know, since then obviously we’ve gotten some news on the tariff front, on trade policy, and we’ve got a 90 day agreement between the US and China, established right around mid May, and hopefully that’s putting some minds at ease. But if you’d heard that and wondered, “Oh, why is Rob saying that about tariffs?” Well, now we have an agreement on that, at least for about three months or so, and we’ll see where we go from there.

But another thing that kind of stood out for me was just the Nashville market. Great to get some first-hand perspective on what that’s been like the last couple years in that market. I thought it was kind of interesting to hear how, not just the Nashville metro area, but the surrounding area, even north into Kentucky, how that’s become a huge demand region at large. So, an area to keep an eye on and be curious to see where Armada goes from here, whether it’s more in the Tennessee, Kentucky region, or if they look more to the south, as Rob made it kind of clear that they’re looking more toward the southern half of the US, as that’s where he’s got much of his history.

What else is happening at Pit & Quarry these days? Well, as we’re dropping this episode on Tuesday, June 3, you should, or should just about be receiving your June edition of Pit & Quarry, and this month’s edition has some special coverage on drilling and blasting. We feature some of the latest equipment and technology in the category and we also have an interview with RAM Inc.’s Robert McClure. Robert writes about how technology is shaping drill and blast operations. So, if that’s something you find yourself in if you’re a drill and blast contractor, or you know, your operation does drilling and blasting on its own, that’s something you might want to check out, because he’s talking about smart technology and how that category has changed in recent years and how it may change even more in the years to come with things like AI and autonomy and the like. But beyond drilling and blasting, we’ve got a little bit of everything aggregate processing, I would argue, in the June issue. We talk about wear parts, conveying, washing, screening. So, if you didn’t get your copy of Pit & Quarry‘s June issue yet in your mailbox, get online. We’ve got our digital edition available now, that’s Pit & Quarry‘s June edition.

Also within June, and in recent copies of the magazine, we’ve been publishing a monthly column titled “The Going Home Safely Everyday” column, and it actually features the work of Steve Fuller. He’s a safety consultant with the Steve Fuller Company. This month in June, Steve writes about PPE, and he’s covered other topics, and we’ll be covering some others in the months to come. But you know, one thing that I think Steve does a really great job of, if you haven’t yet seen his work, I’d encourage you to open up the magazine to our safety section, again, and look for the “The Going Home Safely Everyday” column. But Steve really takes an everyday topic, related to safety, and finds a way to kind of really drill deeper into that. With PPE he just talks about real world experience and some better practices that pretty much every operation can be doing to enhance safety within their operations. He’s been to a whole assortment of operations, and basically, with his column he’s presenting information from his travels, from his consultancy work and relaying the insights that he’s gathered, some of the best ideas that he’s captured from his visits and putting them out there in the magazine. So again, I’d encourage you to check out Steve Fuller’s work on pitandquarry.com and in Pit & Quarry magazine.

One other thing I wanted to put out there for everybody listening and for Pit & Quarry readers is 2025 is a year we’re going to be producing another Pit & Quarry handbook. We’re actually going to be titling at the Pit & Quarry University Handbook. That’s all about pits and quarries, aggregate processing, everything from geology and site selection all the way through crushing, screening, washing and all the way out the door to load out. So, it’s going to be coming in November. We’re actually compiling this handbook now, and wanted to put it out there in case anybody is listening and wants to contribute their own expertise. I’d encourage you to reach out to me or managing editor Jack Kopanski, as we’re actively putting together content for the Pit & Quarry University Handbook 2025 edition. So, something to consider whether you want to contribute to this with your own expertise, or something just to look forward to in November.

We last put this out in 2017 and our last edition is also available online at pitandquarry.com where we house it as Pit & Quarry University. Again, it’s aggregates 101 type of content. Really ideal for new employee orientation, and the 2025 edition of the handbook is going to really take the same approach, trying to bring new people into operations and familiarize them with dredging, with loading and excavating, with hauling, everything aggregates. So, just something to be on the lookout for here in the coming months from Pit & Quarry.

What can you look forward on the next episode of Drilling Deeper? We’ll have another one for you in two weeks, specifically on Tuesday, June 17, as we’re going to be exploring the future of conveyor technology, and we’re going to be doing that with an expert from VDG, that’s Van der Graaf. Specifically Jack Kopanski, Pit & Quarry‘s managing editor, is going to be visiting with Matt Lepp, who’s going to be highlighting VDG’s drum motors and how they’re revolutionizing material handling in the aggregate and mining industries. Matt has more than 18 years of experience at Van der Graaf and he’s going to bring a blend of technical expertise, strategic insight and real world application to our next episode. Matt’s going to offer proven strategies to improve conveyor efficiency, insights about Van der Graaf’s zero maintenance drum motor technology, success stories from the field and how to future proof your operations with smart equipment investments. Again, you can look for this episode in two weeks on June 17th, and you’ll be able to access it at drillingdeeperpodcast.com or on your preferred podcast platform.

Lastly, just want to thank Rob Duke one final time for joining me. Rob, appreciate you sharing Armada Material’s story as well as your own journey through the aggregates industry, and want to thank our show sponsor once more. Did you know East Rock Solutions is now part of the Kemper Group? And together, they’re raising the bar on parts availability, equipment solutions and turnkey plant design. From the pit to the stockpile, Kemper Group has got your operation covered. To learn more, visit kemperequipment com, or call 610-273-2066. Thanks to Kemper. Well, that’s going to do it today for episode 42 of Drilling Deeper. Thanks for listening everybody, and we’ll see you next time.