Nimbyism makes aggregate consents an elusive quarry

A quarry in Balclutha, South Otago. (Image: AQA)

Thu, 06 Jul 2023

New Zealand has about 1,000 quarries which produce about 50 million tonnes of road and construction aggregate every year.At around $20-a-tonne, that values the sector at about $1 billion, and puts NZ as the third biggest user per capita, after China and Canada. That high usage is driven by environmental impacts like earthquakes and a need to frequently upgrade roads and other projects. In the bigger picture, of course, NZ remains a piece of sand on the aggregate beach.New or expanded quarriesChina’s annual production and consump...

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