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A quarry that has been around for more than 70 years is about to start producing aggregate in serious quantities – Rodney Aggregate Supplies plans to extract and process 450,000 tonnes of top quality greywacke for the region’s roads. BY MARY SEARLE
Although still owned by the Petrie family, the lease on the quarry has recently changed hands and consents obtained by new operator Rodney Aggregate Supplies, a joint venture between Fletcher Building subsidiary Winstone Aggregates and Fulton Hogan. Rodney Aggregate Supplies has spent 12 years trying to obtain the necessary consent to quarry, working with the local iwi and community to develop land management practices that were acceptable to all parties. In December 2005 the Environment Court granted consent and work began on getting the quarry ready to go into production. Many companies have quarried at this site over the years. Sharps worked the quarry in the early 1950s until the lease was taken over by Wharehine Group in 1956. Wharehine worked the site until 1964 and in 1984 decided not to renew its lease. In 1988 Bitumex took up the lease and later sold it to Winstone Aggregates. Both Fletchers and Fulton Hogan have a large demand for quality stone, and as aggregate demand continues to rise, they needed a long-term, secure supply and an efficient operation. Whangaripo Quarry provided an ideal solution as it was already developed. According to Lindsay Crossen, CEO of Fulton Hogan and chairman of Rodney Aggregate Supplies, the quality of rock at Whangaripo Quarry is very good. “It’s the first real greywacke deposits north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge,” he told the group assembled for the official opening. Later he told NZ Quarrying & Mining that over the length of the consent, they will excavate down 45 metres from where the ceremony was held. The estimated 450,000 tonne annual output will significantly contribute to the forecasted two million tonne annual aggregate shortage in greater Auckland. The aggregate will be used in Firth Concrete at Albany, Fulton Hogan asphalt at Silverdale and potentially the WFH subdivision development in Orewa and the new Alpurt motorway. The quarry will produce a full suite of quarry products, including seal chip, concrete aggregate, GAP products and asphalts. The plant installed at Whangaripo is from Winstone’s Flat Top Quarry in Kaukapakapa. It has taken 12 months to set up Whangaripo Quarry, a complex and multidisciplinary project, controlled by John Hogan of Winstone Aggregates. Hogan says it took three weeks to dismantle the plant in September last year and 40 large truck loads to get it to Matakana. The team had to work out how to cut it into pieces for the most efficient transport. Once it arrived on site, it took another six weeks to reassemble it, and another month to do the electrical work and fit out. In preparation for production, 340,000 cubic metres of earth was moved in May and June 2006. Hogan says the company had to get exemption from the council to work through winter and was plagued by wet weather – a metre of rain fell in the first week! At Flat Top the plant was producing a basic GAP product so the reassembled plant was modified to produce higher quality aggregate products. The gyratory crusher was discarded and replaced with a cone crusher. A Barmac crusher was installed and a chip screen added. Lindsay Crossen is full of praise for project manager Richard Compton, who worked extremely hard to get the quarry through the consent process and up and running. “No surprises”, was the key to his success – and this meant good communication and consultation with the public, stakeholders, iwi and councils. Rodney Aggregate Supplies is providing added value to the local community – one of the conditions of the consent was to safety upgrade the Whangaripo Valley Road, improving the drainage and doing shape correction at a cost of $75,000. The company’s commitment to local residents was to have the safety works done before quarry operation began. A further $20,000 has been contributed by Rodney Aggregate Supplies to the Matakana village upgrade and it is also working with Transit on intersection improvements on the turnout onto State Highway 1. Also, although no one’s quite sure how, the quality of the water coming out of the quarry is higher than the water coming in – Hogan puts it down to the quality of the rock it’s being filtered through.
Q&M Vol.4 No.2 Apr-May 2007 |
In 1919 Len Petrie bought a farm in Matakana Valley, north of Warkworth, and forged out a living, raising sheep and milking cows in the rural backblocks. In 1937 a road was built over the steep hill to the Matakana village using rock from a small quarry on the farm. Today, that road is still maintained using aggregate from the same quarry, but Whangaripo Quarry is now a large operation and destined to be a major supplier of aggregate to the region north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.