QUARRIES ESSENTIAL TO A SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Only with the co-ordinated e f forts of SA’s legal quarrying industry will t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f a p p r o p r i a t e infrastructure be able to take place.

This is according to the director of mining industry association ASPASA, Nico Pienaar, who says the quarrying industry in SA is technically advanced and able to supply materials for modern construction techniques. However, many of the country’s quarries are under threat due to illegal operations and ill-considered borrow pits, which are undercutting the prices of formal quarries and bringing many to their knees.

Pienaar warns that without wellmanaged quarries operating in our towns and cities, the cost of construction will become unaf fordable for government, developers and home-owners. If the quarries are allowed to disappear, we will see similar problems arise to those of the Eskom energy and water crisis, where too little is done too late – and the country’s citizens will bear the brunt.

No tomorrow “Imagine if we needed specialised materials to build a dam wall, tunnel or hospital, or private contractors needed high-strength concrete for mine shafts, high-rise buildings or advanced new construction techniques. Imagine if we couldn’t supply them because our formal quarrying industry’s mining experts, blasting professionals, mineral processing engineers and skilled workers had left the sector, due to the quarries closing. Illegal miners and small-scale borrow pits have neither the skills nor the expensive capital equipment to produce such materials,” says Pienaar.

“By supporting illegal miners or establishing ill-considered borrow pits to meet short-term construction requirements more cheaply, government departments, municipalities and construction firms would be complicit in the demise of our quarries, which would then inevitably lead to the demise of the formal construction industry in SA. While short-term price gains may seem attractive, they undermine the livelihoods of thousands of workers who’re gainfully employed in the formal quarrying sector with its strenuous health, safety and

environmental laws, as well as compliance with employment criteria,” he adds. He explains that quarries, by their nature, need to be situated either in or near towns and cities to avoid expensive transport costs that would make them unaffordable. All too often, residents only see the negative side of quarrying, such as the use of heavy equipment on site, blasting or increased heavy vehicle traffic and become upset at the thought of having a “big, dirty” quarry nearby. These people don’t realise that formally registered quarries belonging to the association are far from being bad neighbours.

Compliance matters Legal quarries which are members o f ASPASA must obtain mining, water usage and environmental permits and have to abide by the strictest regulations possible in order to begin quarrying operations. Once in operation, they are heavily regulated (in terms of the impact on surrounding communities) and must comply with stringent regulations relating to noise, dust and water pollution, among others. An additional benefit is the creation of direct and indirect jobs that are sustainable over a long period.

In fact, the quarry industry has never been more responsible and committed to the communities in which they operate. With government’s commitment to building new homes and the rising population growth, a strong demand for infrastructural development is required and this needs to be supported by legal quarry operations in every town and city. “We’re calling on government, contractors, developers and the formal construction industry to recognise the important roles played by well-resourced, well-equipped, formal quarries and to support them in the interests of sustainable construction,” says Pienaar.

Quarries create employment for surrounding communities The value of well-run quarries in our cities and towns was recently underscored by research suggesting that every job in the quarrying industry creates a further five jobs in downstream operations. These figures therefore suggest that quarries are major contributors to regional job creation efforts and, as an industry, are a major driver of the national economy, accounting for substantial revenues and the creation of direct and indirect employment.

Research done in the USA by the Phoenix Centre for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies shows that quarries are not only beneficial to the development of physical infrastructure, but are major contributors to the building of strong local economies. It also shows that these benefits last for at least 20 years.