HawkinsRails - Franklin Industrial Minerals

Franklin owns and operates eight mineral mining and processing locations across the southeastern and southwestern U.S. supplying hundreds of quality products to thousands of customers in more than 20 major industrial and agricultural markets. Principally known as a major producer of chemical grade high-purity limestone, other minerals produced at one or more locations include alumina trihydrate and crushed stone. Franklin products are readily available in bulk, semi-bulk and bagged quantities, and are sold through both direct sales and an extensive worldwide distributor network.

Franklin Industrial Minerals

fmix_state Franklin Industrial Minerals operates about 16 miles of the old Tennessee Central Railroad from Rockwood, Tennessee, west to the company's quarry and processing plant at Crab Orchard. In 2001, Norfolk Southern proposed abandoning the line, given that the middle portion west of Crab Orchard had already been pulled from service. Franklin Minerals bought the line in order to preserve rail service to the plant which produces limestone and calcium carbonate products. The line is private carrier, using FMIX reporting marks and making use of several ex Southern Railway General Electric haulers.