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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
SEPTEMBER
2015
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Yet, individual quarrying operators in this key sector are
not being nurtured by Government, rather they are being
over-regulated and are pushed to the point where smaller
operations are becoming unviable and left with no choice but
to close their gates. This often allow for illegal mining to escalate and
not be controlled. The problem says Aggregate and Sand Producers
Association of Southern Africa (Aspasa) chairman, Gert Coffee, is that
regulation of quarries is lumped into the same legislative framework as
mining and thereforethe same rules apply for small quarries as they do
for large gold or platinum mines.
The burden on financial resources of small quarrying operations
is enormous and can easily drive input costs beyond the price that is
attainable for sand and stone.
Localised operation
“For this reason we want to be recognised as different from the main-
stream mining industry and want to draw attention to the fact that the
majority of members are smaller operations outside of towns that do
not have the same resources that mainstream mines have. Without
these small quarries however, the construction industry in the area that
it serves will be severely impacted as materials will need to be shipped
in, although road transport of aggregates beyond a 100 km radius is
uneconomical and exceeds the market price attainable.
“Another problem is that input costs are pushing the price of sand
and stone upwards and as a result building costs are rising to the point
where illegal quarries and borrow pits are starting to thrive. With no
regard for legislation nor tax, royalties or even the wellbeing of their
workers, these unscrupulous operators can undercut legal ones and
drive them to closure,” says Coffee.
He explains that in order to bring relief, Aspasa wants to work with
authorities to explore a separate sectoral classification which can be
tailored to the industryand govern it according to its own requirements.
“It is not that we do not want to be regulated, rather we want regul-
ations to be useful rather than counter productive.”
Construction materials
“In a number of other countries the industry is regarded as separate
from mainstream mining and is defined rather as Construction Materials
Quarrying. It therefore takes into consideration the industry’s role as a
key material supplier for the construction industry and acknowledges
the materials importance in the building of roads, railways, infrastruc-
ture and housing.
Quarrying industry to
PUSH FOR AUTONOMY
Small quarrying operations throughout
the country are carrying the back-
breaking burden of supplying
the country’s entire building and
construction industry with up to 70%
of building materials used to construct
infrastructure and housing.
Aspasa chairman, Gert Coffee.
CEMENT AND CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY