In Queensland, the company has a gravel mine plan for Innes Park and had originally wanted to have the development application lodged with the Bundaberg Regional council in July 2010.
More than two years later the company is still going through the process. Holcim Australia Central Queensland area manager Brian Douglas said the application was going ahead.
Douglas said the company wanted to submit a proposal that was complete and that it was quite normal for the process to take many years to come to fruition.
Douglas said the application would be filed with the council “in the very foreseeable future”, which he said could be as soon as a month or two.
If the application is approved, it could be 2014 before the new quarry is operating.
The quarry is planned for the corner of Barolin Homestead Rd and Elliott Heads Rd, in Innes Park, and designed to replace the quarry operating on Cockerills Rd, which would be closed in 2014.
The nine people working full time there would be transferred to the new quarry.
Quarry protester John Broadfoot said the new quarry was ?in the wrong place? and there were other sources of basalt in more suitable areas.
In Queanbeyan, New South Wales, the council has also pushed back the date of submission of its report on the Holcim Cooma Road Quarry Continued Operations Project.
The report was to be submitted on 10 December but the date has been changed to 14 December to allow for councillor input and discussion.
The report outlines the possible impacts of the company’s expansion plans for the quarry over the next 20 years.
Holcim hoped to increase production capacity from one million tonnes per annum to 1.5 million tonnes per annum, extend the extraction area and extend working hours from 6pm out to 10pm.
The company is also seeking permission to receive quarry materials from other sites for crushing, screening, stockpiling and sale, add a mobile pug mill and be permitted to recycle clean concrete for re-use.
Holcim corporate communications manager Lisa Driscoll said the company wanted to increase production as it had forecasted increased demand for materials to be used in future building projects in the Queanbeyan and Canberra areas.
Driscoll said only on-site work would occur during the extended working hours and not road transport. Such work would only be required if there were market demands.
She also added that, if approved, the quarry would employ another 10 employees in addition to its current staff of 33 people.
Queanbeyan City Council sustainability and better living group manager Michael Thompson confirmed council is paid a royalty to allow the extraction of resources.
“So, the higher the production, the greater the contribution. The contribution is intended to be used for the maintenance and rehabilitation of roads servicing quarry traffic.”
The Development Application, Environmental Impact Statement and other documents may be viewed on the NSW Department of Planning website.
Sources: Holcim Australia, News Mail, The Queanbeyan Age