Quarry industry welcomes support
31 August 2009

The Aggregate and Quarry Association of New Zealand (AQA) is delighted at recent remarks made by Energy Minister, Gerry Brownlee recognising the costs and environmental effects of hauling aggregates.

“Our Association has been advising for years about the high costs incurred when aggregates have to be transported over long distances because of a lack of a local quarry,” said James Boyce, president of the AQA. “For every 30 kms aggregates and sand are transported the costs can double, which is a huge disadvantage to infrastructure development.”

Locally sourced aggregate is the most cost-effective for while aggregates are low value relative to weight, increasing the distance over which they are transported from quarry to construction site adds significantly to costs.

Trucking aggregates over long distances also adds considerably to the country’s carbon footprint and creates unnecessary traffic issues.

Gerry Brownlee pointed out that it has been many years since a new quarry has been established. This is already resulting in aggregates being trucked over 100kms in the Auckland area.

The planning and resource consent process for a new quarry can take ten years or more and costs run in millions of dollars. Given that the Auckland area has approximately twelve years of consented aggregates remaining, consent for new quarries is urgent, particularly with the increase in infrastructure planned by the government.

“The industry wants to be able to provide aggregates at the lowest price possible,” said Boyce, “and that means close to the end work site.”

ENDS

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