Quarries

1. Quarries Are you fore it or against it?

2. As I hope you have seen … • Materials that are quarried from the ground have many different uses • Which ones can you remember?

3. Here are just a few … • Building materials – bricks, stone, cement, aggregate, glass …. • Transport materials – roads and railways and runways for aeroplanes • In the iron and steel industry • In farming • In household chemicals and effects (pottery for example)

4. All these are very necessary items • So this is the first plus: are needed in many industries • Many quarrying sites are in highland areas far away from towns and cities and so provide employment. These areas often lack jobs so there is often a lot of people who welcome the jobs. • The places where they are benefit from the money earned in the quarry being spent locally. • A lot of quarry materials are taken out by road, so often the quarrying companies have to contribute to road improvements

5. But …. • Because the highland areas with suitable materials are often also very rural, quiet and quite often form part of or are near National Parks, people are concerned about the disturbance caused by quarries • The noise of blasting • The dust from the site • The ugliness of the quarry • The extra lorries using quiet lanes, causing damage to roads and noise and extra traffic on small roads

6. Now lets look at a quarry This one is just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland It is called Black Mountain Quarry

7. This is where it is

8. THE PHYSICAL LANDSCAPEBLACK MOUNTAIN The Black Mountain overlooks west Belfast, but over the years a highly visible scar grows ever more visible. A mining company are quarrying basalt rock from its summit destroying In only a number of years what has taken nature millions of years to form. The extraction of rock continues but there is a campaign by local residents to SAVE the BLACK MOUNTAIN.

9. QUARRYING ON THE BLACK MOUNTAIN: GENERAL INFO • Basalt is extracted & • crushed into various grades. • Total no employed is 100. • 20/25 trucks per day used for the haulage of stone. • 2,500 tonnes of stone moved • each day. • Cheaper to buy larger stones, as it takes more to process the rock into smaller sizes. • The quarry company has • received planning permission • to continue quarrying until • 2056 !

10. BLACK MOUNTAIN SKYLINE The skyline of the Black Mountain highlighted with quarry machinery, painted green so that it blends in with the hillside !!

11. WHITEMOUNTAIN: LAGAN GROUP The quarry is operated by WHITE MOUNTAIN QUARRIES. Antrim basalt is quarried from the Black Mt and is used mostly as the “hard core” for surfacing jobs on roads and airports throughout Ireland & Britain and further afield. The rock has been used at the new Hong Kong International Airport and many other sites around the world. So rock mined from a Belfast Mountain. It is crushed by heavy machinery to a variety of sizes and grades right down to basalt “dust”. This dust forms the basis of ready mixed concrete made in three factories in the Belfast area. Much of the profit from the basalt quarrying comes from the transport delivery of the material. A constant stream of quarry lorries takes the stone from the mountain to various destinations around Ireland and to the port of Belfast.

12. Visible from all angles the quarry dominates the skyline What it is like inside

13. HANNAHSTOWN HILL: NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT The housing demand in West Belfast means that more and more land is being used by developers for new housing estates. This photograph shows the new Hannahstown Hill houses, with the quarry clearly seen above.

14. “ PROBLEMS “ Many new housing areas have been built close to the quarry as this dramatic photograph shows. Over the last 20 years opposition to quarrying on the mountain came particularly strong from people living in this area. Not only was the hole created on the side of the mountain a problem, but the dust pollution was, residents Claim leading to respiratory problems among them young and elderly, and blasting was causing structural damage to housing in the area. LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF THE QUARRY

15. AGAINST THE DESTRUCTION : THE REASONS 1. Visual pollution. The huge canyon cut by the quarry company and the ugly buildings. 2. Noise pollution. Lorries laden with stone move down from the rock face like ants. And every week, the rumble of explosions echo across the city as another part of the mountain is blown away. 3. Destroying the environment, which cannot be recovered for our ancestors. 4. Dust pollution leading to respiratory problems, particularly among the young and the elderly. 5. Blasting causes structural damage to houses. 6. Roads are congested and dirty caused by the constant use of heavy lorries.

16. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BLACK MOUNTAIN Questions • What type of rock is quarried at Black mountain? • For what purpose is the rock used? • Why might it be a good thing to have a quarry on Black Mountain? 4. What forms of pollution are associated with this kind of primary activity? 5. Who might like Black Mountain to be mined? There are several different ‘interest groups’ 6. The quarry company have the rights to mine in this area for another 50 years. Do you agree or disagree with this. Argue your case

17. ROLE PLAY: LIVING BESIDE A QUARRY Write a letter to the local Paper. Either Explain why you are not happy with the quarry being there and what effects it is having on your life Or Because you are concerned that all the recent bad publicity will force it to close, write a letter supporting the quarry – you work there are you want it to continue. YOU LIVE HERE