Mining NZ September 2017

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Spring 2017 » Mining NZ 7
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Quarrying is a big and
important industry. But
outside the quarry gates
you’d hardly know it.”
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Hendrick Metz, Fulton Hogan's Bay of Plenty environmental advisor, and
Daniel Beeler, graduate engineer, shifting fish and eels at the company’s
Poplar Lane Quarry in Te Puke. The project saw Fulton Hogan pick up a
silver award in this year’s Mimico Environmental Awards. The opening
up of a new section of the Poplar Lane Quarry required Fulton Hogan to
decommission a clean water storage pond, translocate eels and other
fish from the pond, develop new storage and an additional fish friendly
diversion system through the quarry. The project came through two major
rain events with only moderate damage.
Eels on the move....
Quarry sector looks
to raise its profile
Karen Phelps
The quarrying sector is being virtually ignored by
government and Aggregate and Quarry Association
of New Zealand (AQA) chair Brian Roche is backing
a united approach by industry to change the status
quo. He points to the industry’s failed attempt to
put together a panel discussion of political leaders
at this QuarryNZ annual conference in Auckland
recently with economic development spokespeople
invited from various parties.
Only economic development spokesperson for
Labour, Stuart Nash, spoke at the conference.
“Quarrying is a big and important industry.
But outside the quarry gates you’d hardly know it.
We just don’t get the attention we deserve,” says
Roche.
Roche says that it was in 2008 that the then
AQA Board commissioned a document called
Foundations for our Future.
The document called for a national strategy
on developing aggregate supplies, a formal
mechanism for industry liaison with Government,
and for national and local government to provide
for local aggregate resources in their long-term
infrastructure, transport and resource management
plans. He noted there has been virtually no progress
on the issues since current Government took office
nine years ago.
Echoing a comment made by National MP
Stephen Joyce about public perception of
infrastructure Roche says: “If building is sexy and
infrastructure is unsexy quarrying must seem
hideous [to the public]. We need to change that
perception. We need to make the public aware
that what we do affects so many aspects of their
lives and that quarries are necessary for houses,
buildings, roads, infrastructure. We do good work
and add to our communities and the economy in so
many ways.”
It’s been a call backed by several key industry
figures for some time with Stevensons Group
speaking out on the need for a single industry body
rather than the disparate approach that presently
exists to gain a unified approach with government
on key issues.
At present AQA, Straterra, Mining Health and
Safety Council and Coal Association represent the
sector.
A proposal to eliminate industry organisations
and combine them into one was tabled at a
strategic review of the Mining/Extractives Health
and Safety Council (MinEx) in mid-February by
Stevenson Group which stated after a 12 month
transition period it would only provide funds to a
single extractive sector organisation.
Mark Franklin, managing director of Stevenson
Group thinks politicians are not so much ignoring
the industry as misunderstanding the importance
of it, something he hopes a single industry body
could address: “A lot of politicians do catch up
with the major [industry] players but I’m not sure
the understanding of the industry as a whole
is significant. A single face that the extractives
industry can project to the whole marketplace
would bring a targeted approach as to the message
of the industry and its importance,” he says.
Roche says with the amount of building and
infrastructure projects needed to accommodate the
growing population quarrying will play a key part
but that presently the quarry industry is being held
back by complicated resource consent procedures
and changing public and government perception
of the industry could go a long way to alleviating
issues. “If you think we’ve left the stone age behind
you’d be wrong. The world has a massive appetite
for stone and aggregate.
“It’s nice that Stephen Joyce increased the
infrastructure spend but it won’t go very far without
stone to put into it. There needs to be a requirement
for councils to make a plan for quarries to expand
and new ones to open as we are going to need
more aggregate and without it infrastructure and
housing will come to a grinding halt.”
Roche says he is backing the creation of a
single extractive sector so long as it serves the
quarrying sector as well as mining.
“We need to go with the times and consolidate
so we can get a profile and get in front of the
politicians with one voice. At the moment we have
smaller under funded groups doing good things but
it’s challenging.”
Mark Franklin says that a number of major
industry players representing some of the largest
companies working in the sector are funding
an independent review of the current industry
structure, which is currently underway. He expects
the results to be ready in September.
“There is a genuine understanding that a review
of the whole structure and how things work at the
moment needs to happen. We need to find out what
we really need and how to get there.”
• 2017 Mimico Awards rundown - page 16