From early April the company will manufacture its own resin under the brand name J-LOK, an affiliate company of Jennmar.
“This is something we’ve been thinking about doing for a long time, and with all our new products and types of bolts we didn’t want to be reliant on outside suppliers to make resin to our specifications,” said Keystone Mining Services president, John C Stankus.
“Our initial plan is to sell specialty resin and we think we’re going to be able to make a better quality resin, very specific to our products, at a lower cost.”
Keystone Mining Services is a subsidiary of Jennmar and is responsible for the company’s research and development efforts related to its bolts, as well as offering an advanced modelling consultancy for roof control design.
The resin will be manufactured at the company’s Cresson bolt plant in Pennsylvania, about two hours east of Pittsburgh.
The plant has been designed initially to run two automated resin production lines, but with capacity to add additional lines.