April 24, 2008
New Wilkin Batch Plant

Photo by Dave Maxwell New cement batch plant being put in by Jim Wilkin near Panaca.

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

Jim Wilkin, owner of Wilkin Trucking, said he is building a new reddi-mix cement batch plant along U.S. Highway 93 about one mile south of McCrosky’s Y Service in Panaca. Wilkin said he is planning on moving out of the Caliente yard, located up Antelope Canyon, and decided to “put in a new system instead of moving the old stuff up here and modernize a little bit.”

The property is located just below the Wilkin family home and Jim said he hoped the plant would be fully operational in about a month. “It will be a first class operation when we get it put together,” he said.

Jim said he bought the equipment from a company in Canada and the plant was later displayed at the Con-Ag Show in Las Vegas, so all Wilkin had to do was pay the freight cost from Las Vegas to Panaca.

He said the batch bin can hold about 70 yards at a time. “We can load a truck with this plant in less than five minutes.” The silo holds 100 tons of cement and 50 tons of fly ash.

In addition to the silo and batch bin, an operations building and office will be put up, moving the complete operation to the new site. Wilkin said the new equipment will be manually operated, not computerized.