This morning, I travelled all the way from Christchurch to Rolleston just to look at a quarry site in working progress. I was greeted with a warm welcome from Mr. Jury and his team at the Wheatsheaf site. He gave a quick introduction about quarries like this quarry which is very different from Halswell Quarry, which is now a park. One of his colleague, Sam, gave us a tour and drove us around the whole site. I asked lots of questions that keep popping up in my mind as we got to see lots of different things, such as different piles of aggregate, types of machinery and materials. Sam managed to fill my brain with knowledge, answering every question I had.
After the tour, I learnt a bit more from Mr. Jury and Sam, who illustrated using 3D models of quarries made with artificial intelligence from aerial photos taken by drones. They also explained that quarries would be polluting the environment if done incorrectly. At Wheatsheaf, they use water sprinkled around the site to control the dust from flying everywhere. They also use berms to control light and sound pollution that would affect neighbours. To help the environment even more, they take what they need and return that item better than when they first got it, like water. They said that the water is safe to drink after their water treatment process.
After a whole day of fun learning, I had to head back to school.
Here are some photos of my trip.
What do you find most interesting about quarrying?