Industry News

New quarry on Bathurst riverbank

Bathurst Regional Council has granted permission for the company to work a two-hectare parcel of land, which is anticipated to produce 15,000 cubic metres of alluvial sand annually over 10 years.
Bathurst mayor Greg Westman said the approval for the project, a local development, came under delegated authority.
?This is a relatively small operation,? he said. ?We?re only looking at two or three truck movements on any one day. On some days there may even be none.
?The site is about 50 metres from the river and the development application ticked all the environmental boxes. It should be noted we?re talking about alluvial sand. This means it has been dumped there as a result of flooding over many years.?
The Bathurst Council?s director of environmental, planning and building services David Shaw said the land where the quarrying would take place was presently used for agricultural cropping.
?The trouble is it?s really not that productive because of all the sand there,? he said. ?When it rains, the water is lost because it seeps through the topsoil so quickly. The intention is to remove what topsoil there is there, quarry the sand to a depth of about two metres and then remediate it.
?This will be achieved by replacing the mined area with quality topsoil, hence returning it to prime agricultural land. It really is a win-win situation for everyone involved.?
?Most people won?t even know there?s a sand quarry there. More importantly, sand is in big demand because it?s needed for everyday tasks in the building industry.?
Mr Shaw said there are about six sand mines in the district, the biggest on the Mid-Western Highway, just along from Hen and Chicken Lane.
Phil Hotham from Hotham?s Sand, Soil and Gravel said there is massive demand for sand.
?This is only a small-scale operation and when it?s done we will return the land in a better condition than it is now,? he said.
Source: The Western Advocate (NSW)

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