The Undervalued Importance of Quarries

Quarrying & Quarries play a huge role in our every day lives.

A quarry is a large area where stones and minerals are extracted from the earth.

Not everyone understands their importance because of their environmental impacts and the extraction of raw material.

However the minerals that they produce are essential for many things that we now take for granted.

Here are some of the things that require the minerals from quarries:

		Homes
		Shops
		Offices
		Factories
		Road & Bridges
		Railways, Ports & Airports
		Schools
		Hospitals
		Energy
		Water Systems
		Flood Defences

 

You can see that without quarries it would be impossible to create the infrastructure that we rely on.

As a quarry operator we want people to understand the quarrying process and the reliance we have on the industry.

But it should be clear that any quarrying activities should run alongside a restoration plan to ensure the area is restored to serve future purposes.

 

The Quarrying Process

Removal of surface soils

If you’re working with a completely new quarry then you’ll need to strip and remove the surface soils.

This material is stored around the perimeter in bunds.

These bund helps to screen any quarrying activity and the soils can be reused when restoration is taking place.

 

Drill & blast (if required)

Once you’ve gained access to the material face it needs to be extracted.

Deep holes will be drilled down into the rock where explosives can be placed.

A controlled blast can be carried out to break sections of the rock away.

Drill & Blast only need to be used for hard rock.

 

Dig & haul

An excavator will dig the raw mineral and load it into dump trucks.

This material will then be transported to a processing plant or area.

A field conveyor can be used to move materials longer distances.

 

Crush (If required)

Aggregate processing involves breaking large rocks down to smaller sizes.

Powerful machines known as crushers break the material down.

It can then be washed and screened.

 

Wash & screen

Crushed rock, sand or gravel can be washed to remove any silt and finer material.

It is then sieved through a machine known as a screener.

This process separates the particle out into single sizes.

 

Stockpile & test

The processed aggregates will then be transported into stockpiles or storage bays.

The product can undergo testing in laboratories to ensure they meet the required specifications for their usage.

 

Load & transport

A digger or loading shovel will loads the aggregates into the back of tipper wagons.

The material will then be transferred to where it is needed or for further processing.

There are different means of transporting material i.e., ships, trains or even barges.

 

Downstream processing

Some aggregates will then be used to make downstream products such as concrete and asphalt.

These processing plants can be located at a quarry or other off-site locations.

 

Restore quarry

An important part of quarrying is quarry restoration.

This is the process of restoring the former quarry so it can serve a new purpose i.e. agriculture, nature conservation, recreation, or leisure.

 

Why are quarries important to the UK?

Construction 

Quarries are a vital component in the construction industry.

As you may already have gathered they supply the industry with different minerals that are needed to create new infrastructure.

Without them modern society wouldn’t be what it is today.

 

Employment

A quarry needs a team of people to ensure it is efficiently and safely operated.

This often includes a team of machine operators who have varying roles such as extractions, processing or transporting.

All this combined with the number of quarries in the UK relates to tens of thousands of jobs.

 

Economy

The minerals industry in the UK turnovers £16bn.

This highlights that without quarrying there would be a large hole within the UK economy.

 

The Numbers

To give further context to the importance of minerals we have complied some stats to understand the sheer scale of the industry.

The latest UK figures from 2018:

	400 Million Tonnes Aggregates and manufactured mineral products
	£16 Billion Annual turnover for the minerals and mineral product industry
	£597 Billion Annual turnover of the industries they supply
	81,000 People employed in the industry
	3.5 Million Jobs supported in the supply chain

 

We believe the importance of quarries shouldn’t be understated.

Understanding about how quarries contribute gives people a wider perspective on some of their issues which creates a better balance.

Whilst we continue to look at sustainable ways of supplying mineral, such as the use of recycled aggregates, quarries will continue to supply the materials needed to keep building the UK

 

Sources:

Extracting Minerals (mineralproducts.org)

Facts & Figures (mineralproducts.org)

A Guide to the Quarrying Process (thompsonquarries.co.uk)