The Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) have advised the application was received by Umwelt Pty Ltd on behalf of the quarry.

Hargraves Quarry commenced operations in 1995, and the DPE have now asked for community comments on the extension.

At Oberon Council’s recent ordinary meeting they endorsed the five proposed outcomes detailed within the report, subject to confirmation from the DPE that no further assessment was required for the additional haulage limits proposed.

The extension application proposes:

■ Retaining the current maximum production level of 400,000 tonnes per annum (TPA), while removing the requirement for production to not exceed an annual average of 200,000 TPA over a 10 year period;

■ Replacement of some of the existing screening plants, reconfiguration of the alignment of screens and an additional cone crusher added;

■ Inclusion of a second fuel storage tank (approximately 28,000 litres); ■ One hectare extension of extraction area;

■ Inclusion of a Finlay 750e Hydrasander (or equivalent) to separate silt and clay from sand size particles in the crusher fines;

■ Duplication of approximately 180 metres of internal haul road to improve road safety;

■ Continued extraction of high quality basalt from existing extraction areas as required with extraction at time occurring on the upper and lower benches;

■ Additional haulage maximum daily limits to 3000 tonnes each day for a period of not more than 50 days in any year.

As a result and preliminary comments provided to the DPE, the applicant sought an on-site inspection with Oberon Council staff (held April 28, 2015) to discuss the required road works that was identified as requiring maintenance. Oberon Quarries currently pay a road levy $0.47 per tonne of material produced, this funding transgresses into offsetting the on-going maintenance/capital upgrade road works for Titania Road, Edith Road and the Shooters Hill Road. This levy is indexed each year. Titania and Edith roads are classified regional roads and attract substantial amount of heavy haulage, not just from the quarry, but from the timber industry and their logging contractors. Under development application requirements, and from a recent inspection of the road network, council engineers have requested that Oberon Quarries contribute to the upgrade maintenance and repairs to the Titania and Duckmaloi roads intersection, Titania and Edith roads intersection, and to Edith and Shooters Hill roads as part of the EIS.