Old Becomes New at Cliffe Hill

摘要

In April 2003 Quarry Management reported on progress at Midland Quarry Products' flagship hard rock operation, near Markfield, in Leicestershire, where tunnel construction was well under way as part of an innovative scheme to link the then dormant quarry void at Old Cliffe Hill to the current operational quarry, processing plant and railhead at New Cliffe Hill, with the aim of releasing some 60 million tonnes of previously sterilized reserves of high-quality granite. In the two-and-a-half years since then the tunnel has been completed, a new semi-mobile primary crushing plant has been installed and commissioned at Old Cliffe Hill, an extensive field conveyor system linking the two sites (via the new tunnel) has been constructed, and a huge overburden removal operation has commenced, allowing extraction and processing of the remaining reserves of stone within Old Cliffe Hill to get under way. The return to the old site formed an integral part of the original planning permission for New Cliffe Hill secured in 1983, although no defined method of linking the two voids was outlined in the plans at that time. Subsequently, consideration was given to overland conveyors and cut-and-cover tunnels, but ultimately the most environmentally acceptable solution for the planners and local residents was a deep-level tunnel within the granite bedrock.