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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