Quarry Development and Operation

Development
When a quarrying company decides to establish a new quarry, or extend an existing quarry operation, it is important to have a
detailed development plan. Winstone Aggregates’ specialists work with many expert consultants to ensure all aspects of the
quarrying operation meet regulations and generally care for the surrounding environment.

In New Zealand quarrying companies must ensure that all aspects of the proposed quarry meet the requirements of planning
objectives, rules and guidelines set within the framework of the Resource Management Act 1991. The company then applies to
their local authorities (City, District or Regional Council) for resource consents to establish the new quarry. Once consent is
given to the company and any subsequent appeals to the Environment Court have been settled, quarrying operations may
begin.

These same planning and regulation steps are also likely to apply if an existing quarry is to extend its operations into
neighbouring land not already zoned for quarrying or defined as having existing use rights.

In addition to consulting residents during the initial planning stages of a new quarry, community feedback is generally sought on
proposed changes to quarrying operations, such as the introduction of new extraction processes or equipment which might have
effects beyond the quarry’s boundary.

Figure One
Quarry development

Operation
For a builder or roading engineer to complete their job successfully, they need a range of specific aggregate products to ensure
the building or road is economic and safe for our use. This is why we need quarries.

A quarry is a rock source which can provide a range of aggregate products to be used by builders or roading engineers to make
our life more enjoyable.

A wide range of methods and processes is used to extract quarried products from the ground. There are about 600 aggregate
extraction operations in New Zealand. Although most aggregates are quarried, some products, such as sand and gravel, are
dredged from rivers and the ocean floor. Many larger quarries manufacture a variety of aggregates. Winstone Aggregate's Lunn
Avenue Quarry in the Auckland suburb of Mount Wellington, produced 32 different standard products as well as several to
customers' specific requirements, before it closed in 2001.

After plans are finalised and approved the first stage of a quarry operation is the removal of any vegetation, followed by the
removal of soil, which is normally placed to one side for use in rehabilitation. The next step is to remove any unwanted material
such as clay and highly weathered or soft rock. This material is called overburden and can usually be removed by heavy
earthmoving machinery such as bulldozers, excavators and motorscrapers.
For most crushed aggregates, explosives are required to break the rock out. Holes are drilled in the rock and partially filled with
explosives. A single blast may use more than four tonnes of explosives. However, different patterns and detonation sequences
of explosives are used to control the effects of noise and vibration, so that no more than 100 kg is exploded at any instant. This
is particularly important where quarries are located near homes and businesses. Drilling and blasting is usually unnecessary
with scoria, because the material has already separated during its ejection from the volcano.

Before rock can be used as aggregate, it must be processed into an appropriate size. For example, the basecourse used in
roading is usually a graded mix of up to 65mm in size, while typical sealing chip is all one size. Materials removed from the
quarry face are taken to the quarry's processing plant by dump truck or front-end loader. Most processing plants use mechanical
crushing machines, which can be classified in three categories. Pressure crushers 'squeeze' rocks until they break down to a
smaller size. In an impact crusher, the rocks are struck with heavy rotating 'hammers' or thrown against a hard surface, while
attrition crushers use a grinding action.

Most quarried products will go through a combination of different processes, including crushing, screening (to size the material)
and washing. They may also be blended and mixed with additives to make them stronger or more durable.

Unwanted materials or those that could be damaging to the performance of the finished product are removed during processing.
For example, dust is washed from sealing chip so it will better stick to the road surface, while sand and gravel dredged from the
ocean floor is screened to remove pieces of shell, wood and other unwanted materials.

The shape of the crushed rock fragments may be important - concrete and road surfacing needs cubical to rounded material,
rather than flat fragments. Particular types of processing equipment are needed to achieve these shapes and will also depend
on the rock being quarried.

After processing, samples of aggregate are carefully checked to make sure the product is of the right quality and grading for its
intended use.

Different aggregate products are then stockpiled ready for transportation to construction sites and to manufacturers.