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Aggregates industry developing quarry planning guidelines
14 September 2009 - The aggregate industry is developing national planning for how new and existing quarries are going to be consented in future, the president of the Aggregate and Quarry Association, James Boyce says.
Mr Boyce told the AusIMM minerals conference in Queenstown that the initial planning guidelines were drawn up in association with regional and central government.
The Auckland area has approximately 12 years of supply remaining from consented aggregate quarries. Consent for new quarries is urgent, particularly with the increase in infrastructure planned in the coming years.
Without planning for new quarries to provide aggregates, it would not be possible to build roads, hospitals, cycleways and so on, he said.
Quarries are needed close to the centre of consumption to keep down transport costs, reduce unnecessary traffic as well as cutting the country’s carbon footprint.
Mr Boyce said the quarry industry would be only the second industry after the wine industry to go through the quality planning process. The planning guidelines established with regional government would be reviewed and handed over to a planning committee guided by the Ministry for the Environment.
Sources: James Boyce and Lindsay Clark
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