A request to extend the operating hours at Boral’s Peppertree Quarry at South Marulan in New South Wales was accepted by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) last month.
Activities in the quarry pit can now occur between 5am and 11pm on any day after they were previously restricted to between 7am and 7pm.
Another alteration involving the establishment of a new overburden emplacement in the southern part of the site was also approved.
The modification application was publicly exhibited between April and May.
“Key issues raised during consultation included noise and dust,” a DPE spokesperson said.
“The department has addressed these issues during its assessment and attached a strict condition requiring additional noise monitoring at extra residential locations, to provide more comprehensive data and to ensure that the quarry complies with the noise criteria in its approval.
“The department is satisfied the air quality impacts of the proposed modification application are acceptable, and are unlikely to significantly increase for nearby residences,” the spokesperson added.
Increasing demand
According to a Boral company statement, Peppertree Quarry has become increasingly popular for its supply of hard rock aggregates to the building and construction market since it opened in 2014 and it had sought to increase its operating hours in order to keep pace with demand.
“These extra hours will allow us to keep pace with the needs of our customers, all while still having to comply with the noise, air quality and environmental obligations in place for the entire site,” it stated.
The statement also noted securing approval for its new overburden placement would “help consolidate the important role the quarry plays in building the Marulan region and wider NSW both economically and socially”.
Nearly all products at Peppertree Quarry are processed, handled and stored in an enclosed system before being loaded onto four daily trains to Sydney.
Sandvik Construction built the state of the art processing plant in collaboration with Boral. It comprises primary, secondary and tertiary crushing and screening circuits, air classifiers and storage silos, all linked by a total of 3.4km of enclosed belt conveyors.
A high amount of automation, including a continuous, automatic quality control system, enables Boral to run the site with as few as 30 staff on-site.
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