Features

Demand for ornamental blue limestone also drives Carrieres du Hainaut's production of 2.2million tonnes of aggregates each year. While the focus for many quarries is to produce high quality aggregates, for some the aggregates are a by-product of the quest to produce higher value materials. For Belgium-based Carrieres du Hainaut, this means moving 300,000m3 of overburden and 2.2million tonnes of limestone aggregates to extract just 200,000m3 of the prized Pierre Blue limestone.

Lack of geologiclal resources means that the aggregates market in the netherlands reLies on recycling and imports to meet national demand. Julie-anne ryan reports. What marks the Dutch aggregates market out from others in Europe is the paucity of naturally occurring geological resources, and thus the reliance on imports and recycling.

The European commission has recently published a number of documents that will affect the aggregates sector. The European Aggregates Association (UEPG) summarises the key events. European politics covers a wide range of issues but the minerals industry has been in the spotlight in several recent publications and communications

Efforts to improve energy efficiency in any quarry will be furthered by a new EU-funded project now underway. Claire Symes met with the EE-Quarry project leader Antonio Barona to find out more. When you think of energy efficiency and quarries, you might not link these thoughts with an office block in a newly built district on the northern edge of the Spanish city of Madrid.

The biggest country in the world, with probably the most diverse geology, Russia is also a relative newcomer to some of the Western business practices and attitudes that its global counterparts take for granted. After the collapse of communism, Russia had no SME style businesses as we see them in the West - dynamic and aggressive developers of new markets and ideas that can move geographically and economically to fill voids in the marketplace.

Demand for aggregates in Hungary has dropped dramatically in recent years. Julie-Anne Ryan reports. The aggregates market in the small, land-locked central European republic of Hungary has dropped markedly in the last few years along with so many others worldwide. Figures show that it's back to where it was 20 years ago, despite being double that size as recently as 2005 - a surge in construction projects around that time clearly couldn't be sustained.

Wakoz's newest quarry is producing top quality aggregates for major road construction work in Gdansk following investment in washing facilities. Claire Symes visited the quarry in Poland to find out more. Visitors arriving at Wakoz Beton's Glazica sand quarry in Poland for the first time may mistake the peacefulness of the site for inactivity and low productivity. However, first perceptions belie the level of activity at the site which is producing high quality