Conrad Yelvington Sand Mine
Nestled just one mile off of I-4 in Polk City, Florida, is Conrad Mine, the latest addition to the Preferred Materials, Inc. family. Conrad Mine is a state of- the-art sand dredging operation that is located on a 692 acre site in the heart of what is designated as Florida’s “Green Swamp” area. The mine, which opened in December 2015, supplies sand to Preferred Materials
Concrete and Preferred Materials Asphalt operations across west and central Florida, as well as external customers, and has over 25 years of reserves.
The site went from “greenfield” status to operation in approximately 12 months. The first step in transforming the site into a fully functioning sand mine operation was to construct a 2.5 mile entrance road through a swampy area to the eventual plant location. Once the road was in place, the plant was erected and the dredge was assembled in less than 6 months. This took a tremendous amount of focus, coordination and effort, led by the Conrad Yelvington Director of Mining Operations, Roger Burns. Roger used his leadership, expertise, and 30+ years of experience in mining to successfully get the project completed on time and under budget.
During the planning stages of the project, the Conrad Yelvington team worked closely with the Preferred Concrete and Preferred Materials Asphalt Quality Control departments to ensure that the plant equipment selected for the project would produce materials that would meet or exceed their product specifications. The efforts and cooperation of both Jeremy Minnillo, Director of Quality Control for Preferred Concrete and Johnny Turner, Director of Quality Control for Preferred Materials Asphalt, were exemplary and allowed Conrad Mine to seamlessly vertically integrate into Preferred Materials.
