Modern Quarrying January-February 2016

HISTORICAL FEATURE

mining. However, we also had to make sure that they didn’t notice things that shouldn’t have been there so that they wouldn’t have a go at the quarries after- wards, in terms of legislation,” he adds. “The whole idea was for us to talk about the environment and not about the nuts and bolts legislation in a quarry plant. I also tried to have someone from the local municipality and if there was any particular environmental person available, I latched on to them as well. Arnold and I travelled many thousands of miles around the country, staying in funny places, and we picked up these teams as we went along.” Interestingly, in 1993 there were 39 quarries that participated in the About Face programme, which increased to 44 and remained close to this figure for sev- eral years. Report and photographs unless otherwise accredited, by Dale Kelly.

“Otherwise they got a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 Fish eagles, and we had an interim one right at the beginning for those quarries that really hadn’t a clue but were willing to try.” The About Face programme was “very gingerly ventured into in 1993, with one of the earliest judges being Arnold Jubber, who had retired as CEO of Hippo Quarries. “To set a standard, I tried to get someone from the Nature Conservation Department and they were tremendously helpful, and also from the Natal Parks Board and the Parks Board in Gauteng. They were wonderful in providing people to come around the quarries,” Sir Rupert recalls. “Most of them had never seen a quarry, but they knew something about the environment and that was the idea.” A representative from the Department of Mines was also included, whom, according to Sir Rupert, was “mostly clueless, but they found it interesting to be around people who weren’t actually

“We had a marking sheet and concen- trated on three of four things – the first of which was the legal requirements. This was in the early days when you had to produce an EMPR, which was an entirely new development for industry. Then we looked at the quarry and its impact on the environment and how it might be improved. We looked at the plant in the same way and also the overall environ- mental situation. “Then we needed certificates and shields. We decided to use the Fish Eagle because that was a South African bird and we obtained permission from the John Voelcker Trust (publisher of the Roberts Birds of Southern Africa) to use the Fish Eagle pictured in their book, and we designed shields for the appropriate number of Fish Eagles. “The top award was the Showplace Award, and over the years quite a few quarries reached that status,” he says.

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MODERN QUARRYING

January - February 2016