Modern Quarrying October-November 2015

LAST BLAST

Blast from the past M Q came across a paper presented in 1982 at a symposium organised by the Concrete Society of Southern Africa. Entitled ‘Quarrying and Stone Crushing in SA’, the total crushed aggregate market in South Africa for 1981 was estimated to be some 30 000 000 m 3 of which the major commercial suppliers in the major centres contributed the volumes on the right. Unfortunately today, it is difficult to quantify the aggregate industry’s over- all contribution to the economy, and notably, the industry keeps no official records or stats about the volumes of material produced, as such records have been declared uncompetitive by the Competition Commission. It is a known fact that the DMR’s records are insufficient and it is crucial that the DMR and Statistics SA find a formula to record industry fig- ures to quantify the significance and size of the aggregates industry. The article continues: Having had its beginnings in such an unsophisticated manner, like manually breaking rocks and hand sorting, the industry today with

the aid of the latest technical develop- ments, now has to cope with stringent specifications, such as those laid down in SABS 1083, standard specifications for ‘Aggregate from Natural Sources’. Interestingly, the paper favours ‘tem- porary operations’ because it says the work is very often related to government (local or central) work, and the time and cost of establishment is nowhere near that of a permanent quarry established by commercial quarry producers. It says an unsightly quarry pit and crushing operation with the traffic that goes with it, is not the most welcome industry in any area. In addition, the fact that boundaries which constitute unpro- ductive ground have to be left between the quarry edge and houses or roads, makes the cost of a quarry site very expensive. It adds that restoration of old quarry sites is now a legal requirement and that this will hopefully change the image of the industry.

Transvaal Witwatersrand 6 000 000 m 3 Pretoria 1 900 000 m 3 Vaal Triangle 620 000 m 3 Witbank 560 000 m 3 Western Transvaal 800 000 m 3 Evander 470 000 m 3 Cape Western Cape 3 000 000 m 3 Eastern Cape 1 500 000 m 3 Natal Durban area 1 700 000 m 3 Richards Bay 480 000 m 3 North Coast 400 000 m 3 South Coast 260 000 m 3 Pietermaritzburg 520 000 m 3 OFS Welkom area 900 000 m 3 Bloemfontein 430 000 m 3

Index to advertisers Afrimat...........................................OFC Babcock Equipment.......................36 Barloworld Equipment...................35 Barloworld Handling....................30 Barloworld Power............................6 Barloworld Power.....................24 Barloworld Power Rental............IBC Bell Equipment Company................18 Doosan............................................32 Komatsu......................................IFC LiuGong................................OBC MMD Mineral Sizing.....................29 Osborn Engineered Products........9 Shantui......................................38 Terex...........................................2

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MODERN QUARRYING October - November 2015