Quarry future secured for decades to come

Pioneer North Queensland has secured council approval to expand the footprint of the Mount Peter quarry, extending its life for decades ahead. General manager Simon Keller said the permitted level of production at the Cairns region site would remain the same, with a maximum of one million tonnes per year of material able to be extracted. Cairns Regional Council has approved the development application for the expansion, with Division 1 councillor Brett Moller highlighting the importance of extractive industry applications to local governments. “Extractive industries provide the raw materials necessary to deliver infrastructure that help towns, cities and communities to grow and prosper, and offer improved liveability,” Cr Moller said. “These applications are almost always in rural areas, less populated with surrounding agriculture and conservation land uses. “As you would expect, there are stringent conditions to protect the surrounding natural environment in terms of local government, state and federal government conditions and over lays under the various legislative acts and regulations. “However, this needs to be balanced with the need for these resources and the economic and social benefits such bring in planning for the future development and growth in our local government areas. “The economic, planning and community needs for extractive industry applications and expansions form part of the assessment benchmarks along with the conditions and overlays for environmental protection, which is important in finding the right balance. “There are many benefits to small and larger size businesses, from transport through to construction. The flow on effects for employment and investment from the raw materials provided by extractive industries, and the availability for such in the longer term, creates the confidence necessary to grow our regions and local communities.” Council documents show that hard rock quarrying has been conducted at the current Mount Peter site for about 35 years. The amount of resource in the additional area to be accessed under the approval is 36 million tonnes, consisting generally of metagreywacke and quartzite, suitable for concrete and asphalt aggregates, and metaargillite seams (usually with minor greywacke) suitable mostly for road base. Depending on market demand, the regional scale quarry could continue to operate for 50-plus years. Mr Keller said the number of infrastructure projects underway in the region now meant some road projects in Far North Queensland had been impacted by lack of available quarry materials. However he believed this was mainly an issue of timing rather than a shortfall of quarry operations in the region.

Quarry future secured for decades to come

Industry Queensland

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