A four-member working group within the Goulburn Mulwaree Council, in the Marulan area of southern New South Wales, is planning a Doing Business with Extractive Industries expo next month. This will bring together representatives from six quarries in the Marulan district. A date has yet to be fixed for the event.
The aim is to allow potential local suppliers to showcase their wares, member David Humphreys explained. Marulan and District Chamber of Commerce and the Goulburn Chamber of Commerce are collaborating on the expo.
?We call it smart economic development because it is optimising gaps we see in the market,? Humphreys said. ?In Marulan we know that all mining companies have a philosophy of dealing with local business for supplies where they can, so we saw an opportunity and need to interface between both. It is very hard for a business to just walk up to a large company and say ?here we are,? so the expo is an avenue for them.?
Humphreys estimated there were 50 to 60 areas where local business could plug gaps, from services to engineering, surveying and maintenance.
Marulan?s quarry companies wanted to spend locally and many businesses were already benefitting, Humphreys added. But more could do so.
Quarry expansion proposal
The expo will include stalls from all the major quarry operators. It comes at the same time that the Eastern Sand and Gravel Company hopes to expand its South Marulan limestone operation.
The company has lodged a $1.4 million plan with Council to increase annual output from 25,000 to 120,000 tonnes of processed and graded limestone at its Marulan South Road quarry. The product would be used in soil remediation, water treatment, agriculture and animal nutrition.
?Eastern Sand and Gravel has been approached by potential customers to supply other grades,? the Development Application (DA) states.
The project involves storage, unloading and processing facilities and conveyors. The limestone would be transported by truck out of the facility, located seven kilometres from the Hume Highway.
The DA is on public exhibition until January 31 and submissions are invited and the Southern Regional Planning Panel will ultimately decide the proposal.
Meantime, Boral and Holcim are well underway with expansions of second quarries at Marulan. Gunlake Quarry also has an operation at Brayton, Divall?s at Carrick and Multiquip Quarries at Bungonia.
Source: The Goulburn Post