ENVIRONMENT IN FOCUS
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Existing quarries are a
‘temporary land use’; and
Quarrymen are the
‘architects’ of the quarries
next end use. Quarrymen
create a new ‘landform’
that may be suitable for
many positive land-uses
in future.
Consider mining your
operation towards an end-
use that could home a new
residential township (Eagle
Canyon); a mega-city with
mixed retail, office and
residential spaces (Tygerberg
Valley); warehousing; factories;
multi-use recreational areas;
vehicle test tracks and driver
training centres; plant
nurseries and cultivation
areas; solar power generation
sites; and water storage and
purification centres or landfills
complete with methane
recovery! Our imagination is
the constraining factor.
I have, personally, visited
closed quarries that are
utilised for vehicle driver
training; agriculture with
grapes on the sun facing
slope, forestry and trails on
the cooler slopes with the
floor a wilderness area; office
complexes; shopping malls;
wilderness areas; mixed
usage and residential and
recreational areas.
Secondly, we need to engage
with local authorities and
align our mining with future
surrounding land usage; to
identify potential end-uses
and to possibly partner
with land-use planners and
developers with a view to
transforming the worked-out
quarry to a new community
needs centred landform.
Through this we will reduce
current costs associated with
rehabilitation that may be
wasteful; we will optimise the
value of the new landform we
are currently creating for the
new land-use.
Most importantly we will
be creating an ‘asset’ in
our books as opposed to
a potential costly liability,
while at the same time,
through the concept of
quarrying being a temporary
land-use, placing our
industry as a true partner in
‘sustainable development’.
Contact Alan or Colleen
Cluett for more information. ■
“We need to see
rehabilitation
not as a future
event but rather
as an ongoing
practice that
we actively
manage.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Cluett Consulting offers services specialist environmental
and mining-related services to the industry. Alan and Colleen
Cluett have a combined experience in the surface mining
industry of more than 40 years. For more information, visit:
www.cluett.co.za.
We need to see quarrying as a temporary land-use that provides
current benefits and serves to create a landscape for the next
(temporary) land-use.
QUARRY SA | MARCH/APRIL 2018 _ 35