Quarries, Mines & Tips

The Quarries Regulations (1999) and Health and safety at quarries, Approved Code of Practice (2013) are intended to help protect the health and safety of people working at a quarries and others who may be affected by quarrying activities. We have extensive experience providing input for various quarries, mines, tips and other linked sites in the UK.

What is a quarry? The definition of a quarry includes:

• Surface mineral workings (including coal);
• Tips (even if they are outside the boundary);
• Storage of minerals, including stockpiles;
• Areas used for the preparation of extracted materials for sale (this includes crushing, screening, washing, drying and bagging);
• Buildings and structures that are used for the working of the quarry;
• Common areas (for example quarry roadways and railways, but not public roads or railways under the control of a rail company);
• Mineral prospecting sites.

Activities related to the above include preparation, work related to extraction and preparation for abandonment.

Appraisal of quarries, large excavations, and tips is required to determine potential risks if they were to fail, or in the case of tips, move considerably more than the design allows for. Regulation 32 states that suitable and sufficient appraisal of all proposed or existing excavations or tips is undertaken by a competent person in order to determine whether any such excavation or tip presents a significant hazard.

These appraisals should be revised, for instance when:

• There has been substantial alterations to working methods;
• At appropriate intervals;
• Whenever there is any reason to suspect that there has been or will be a significant change.

Our team of Geotechnical Engineers and Engineering Geologists have the expertise, professional qualifications and experience to conduct quarry, mine and tip appraisals and decide whether the excavations/tips present significant hazards. We are also able to design and advise on techniques for any method adaptations or remedial works.

We have and are currently engaged on various quarries, mines and tips including the Ffos Y Fran Reclmation Scheme and other limestone and aggregate quarries in South Wales.