Proposals
Cairdshill Quarry
Rationale
The remaining workable reserves under the current planning permission are expected to last approximately 4 years. The quarry has operated since 1983 and the Company would like to maintain supply to local markets.
There are further reserves to the south of the current excavation and in the floor of the existing quarry but there is not enough space to access the lower block of limestone. The Company has drawn up designs to extend towards the south which will provide further limestone reserves, create space to work and handle the material and provide for the long-term future of the business.
Design
Cairdshill Quarry is presently limited by its relatively tight boundary. To recover good quality quartz chips the quarry needs to be designed carefully. The stone lies in steeply dipping beds, some of which are too soft for commercial use and sale. This inevitably leaves a significant amount of discarded stone and sand which needs to be stored until it can be reused to landscape and restore the quarry at the end of extraction. Until then the material simply requires too much space and rehandling.
Our design would see the quarry boundary move south by approximately 200 metres and encompass a new area of approximately 10 hectares. The southern part would not be excavated but would be used to accommodate soil and surplus low-quality stone in a landscaped mound (green). This would be temporary and the stored material would eventually be used in quarry restoration. It could however remain for several years and it is therefore planned to landscape in it in low gradients which would be seeded and available for grazing. Some stone could also be placed to help restoration in the immediately adjacent part of next door’s Blackhillock quarry.
Extraction would then progress into part of the southern extension (yellow) and in the quarry floor (orange). As the floor excavation develops it would be progressively filled with non-commercial grades of stone.
The final restoration of the site would see stored material removed and used in restoration to a combination of agricultural use and nature conservation. A computer generated model has been created to show the sequence of extraction and restoration.
At current output rates it is forecast that reserves in this scheme could last for between 30 and 40 years. Throughout this period, the extraction methods, processing by mobile plant, and the output rate would remain exactly as at present. There would be no increase in vehicle numbers and the hours of operation would also remain the same.
