Modern Quarrying October-November 2015

FACE TO FACE WITH ASPASA

South African quarries that are members of Aspasa are on par with the best quarries internationally.

barriers and rehousing.

and Australia are safety leaders, and we must work together towards eliminating fatalities as our No 1 priority.” Talking about ensuring employee health, he says a big issue is the proposed regulation of Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS).“All eyes are on Europe and industry must push for an exposure limit value of 0,1 mg/m 3 . Water is becoming an increas- ingly scarce resource, and it is an indus- try imperative to minimise water usage and any impacts on ground and surface water.” Talking about biodiversity, he says industry has the potential to develop international blue and green corridors, with the industry becoming a global observatory for biodiversity. “We have to plan for future demand, with most GAIN regions moving towards national/regional 20-30 year aggregate policies and plans. It will be likely become twice as difficult to get permits in 20 years’ time,” he warns. On climate change, he says “if you believe in it, this could drive huge new demand in infrastructure upgrades, flood

“We have to ensure future access to resources as this is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly around major urban centres,” O’Brien says, adding that in the future, underground extraction may be economical in some situations. “Aggregate associations have often tended to only lobby defensively against incoming legislation and regulation; the time has now come to actively lobby governments to develop the infrastruc- ture of the future, with aggregates as a key part of the solution. The industry is becoming increasingly sophisticated, demanding higher skills as the process and service technologies continually develop and therefore its future depends on recruiting, training and developing excellent, versatile, ambitious and entre- preneurial people. Ours will no longer be a male-dominated industry. “I believe that we are only at the beginning of a very exciting adventure; the future potential of GAIN is enormous,” O’Brien says. And Pienaar agrees. The invitation has

been sent out to GAIN members and an exciting programme has been developed, which includes visits to some quarry oper- ations and cement plants in the early part of the week, followed by the GAIN meet- ing and the IQSA/Aspasa conference on the last two days. Sectorial classification Aspasa is pushing for the ability to define its sector with its own set of rules, which Pienaar says the EU has, as does Australia and Canada. “We want to be recognised as different from the mainstream mining industry. Regulations are being lumped into the same legislative framework as mining, with the same rules applying for our smaller operations. “The burden on the financial resources of small quarrying operations is huge and often drives input costs beyond the price attainable for sand and stone. It’s not

21

MODERN QUARRYING

October - November 2015