Managing and protecting aggregate resources

Abstract

This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards or with the North American Stratigraphic Code. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY aggregate operation. Nevertheless, some otherwise high quality aggregate resources may not be developed because of environmental reasons. Aggregate is a high-bulk, low unit value commodity that derives much of its value from being located near the market. Thus, it is said to have a high place value (Bates, 1969). Transporting aggregate long distances can add significantly to the overall price of the product (Leighton, 1991). For example, a city of 100,000 can expect to pay an additional $1.3 million for each additional 10 miles that the aggregate it uses must be hauled (Ad Hoc Aggregate Committee, 1998). Therefore, aggregate operations frequently are located near population centers and other market areas. Despite society's dependence on natural aggregate, urban expansion often works to the detriment of the production of those essential raw materials. "Resource sterilization" occurs when the development of a resource is precluded by another existing land use. For example, aggregate resources that exist under a housing development or shopping center commonly will not be extracted. Bauer (1993) stated that probably the most serious reason for the loss of aggregate resources is the fact that, while resources such as vegetation, soils, archeological sites, endangered species, and so forth are recognized in the community comprehensive planning process as resources of community value, aggregates are not. Furthermore, citizens have their own ideas on how to use the land. Many citizens do not support mining, in part because they do not recognize the dependence of society on aggregate. Personal use is very little, if any, and individuals may not recognize aggregate mining as a necessary land use, even though the need for the commodity is constant. A survey conducted during 1994 (Bingham, 1994) concluded that the public in general believes mining exploits workers, harms the environment, harms the people in nearby communities, and has little personal benefit to the individual. For these and other reasons, citizens may prefer that stone and sand and gravel not be mined nearby (Langer and Glanzman, 1993). This "not in my back yard" syndrome may restrict aggregate development. To protect citizens from the impacts of mining, governments may require permits or impose regulations to control aggregate development. Poulin and others (1994) concluded that permits and regulations restrict development or expansion of aggregate in established areas more than actual resource availability. Weaver (1995) reports that no new crushed stone quarries have been permitted in Connecticut in 15 years, and indications are that estimated sand and gravel supplies in New England could be reduced by at least 90 ...

A Simple System Dynamics Model for the Global Production Rate of Sand, Gravel, Crushed Rock and Stone, Market Prices and Long-Term Supply Embedded into the WORLD6 Model

“…With the dramatic increase in demand, industrial scale marine and beach sand mining are increasingly common, along with sand and gravel made from industrially crushed stone (BMI Research 2014;Langer 2002Langer , 2014Merwede 2014;OSPAR 2003;Radzevičius et al 2010;Robinson and Brown 2002;Velegrakis et al 2010;Sutphin et al 2002;Morrow 2011;Krause et al 2010;Ravishankar 2015;Anthoni 2000;Ashraf et al 2011).…”

Comparative analysis of proposals for the planning of the aggregate industry on the island of Tenerife×

“…The delimitation of the extractive zones of the existing planning model has some flaws and inconsistencies from the environmental point of view, and from the consideration of the productive capacity of mining resources. The lack of consideration for existing geological resources is a major flaw, since it means that aggregate resources remain at risk of sterilization (Stenestad y Sustrac, 1994;Langer, 2002) as a result of a hypothetical expansion of alternative land uses. This paper shows two models for environmental planning applied to the extractive activity for aggregates for the island of Tenerife, which could serve as alternatives to the current planning model: a model called a zoned model and another that can be designated as a zone-concentrated model.…”

Geomaterials as construction aggregates: a state-of-the-art

“…The overall "penetrative" use of aggregates on all inhabited territories, the vulnerability should be discussed more likely on national or even regional level, than on global scale as in the case of metals. Due to the irreplaceable role of aggregates in construction, their recent and future availability deserves special attention from regional planners (Langer 2002;Dulias 2010;Blachowski 2014). At the same time, perspective areas with high probability of possible opening of a new quarry should be avoided from other uses, specifically from overbuilding (Lopes et al 2018), as growing cities are considered as one of the main reasons of sterilization of reserves/resources of mineral raw materials in general and specifically in the case of constructional geomaterials (Bronitsky and Wallace 1974b;Poulin et al 1994;Poulin and Sinding 1996).…”