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| Implementing the restoration plan at the “Los Arenales” quarry | Quarry restoration represents a significant aspect of Italcementi Group’s engagement in safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems. The Group and its subsidiaries have therefore developed quarry restoration schemes that include progressive rehabilitation of the soil used as well as restoration at the end of plants’ life.A good example of this strategy is the rehabilitation of the Mijas quarry “Los Arenales”, in Spain, which ended in December 2006 after eight years of work and was managed in all its phases by Compañía General de Canteras, S.A. The implementation of the Restoration Plan for the “Los Arenales” quarry began in 2000, the same year that it was approved, although some rehabilitation works took place beforehand.
The Mijas quarry was restored as an open site with simultaneous progress by plot. This process has created 12 plots. Mijas was the first limestone quarry in Andalucía to be fully restored in this way, with complete rehabilitation of the entire surface.This is an important project for many reasons. The animal and plant species to be part of the new environment were carefully selected with the Environment Ministry, the Plant Biology Department of Malaga University and Mijas Town, all collaborating in the project. The main objective was to reproduce the Mediterranean forest, in order to achieve integration of the restructured zone. The restoration tried to make an important qualitative step by generating an environment with added value as a result of its biodiversity. The rehabilitation has therefore favoured the re-appearance of an ecological niche that had disappeared, and the replanting of new trees in the zone.In total 153 people worked on the project, 19 of them from the Mijas quarry “Los Arenales”.
This restoration project can be considered as a transferable process whose methodology could be adopted by other companies.Compañía General de Canteras has gone beyond the economic support provided by the local Administration, and the total spent on the rehabilitation programme was € 271,225, compared to the € 120,421 funding for the original Restoration Plan. By doing this, the company has been able to increase the rehabilitated surface area, creating two borders in the west side and five on the east side, and to create a viewpoint from which the entire quarry area can be seen.
The area covered by the quarry initially was 180,532 m2, with 36,736 m2 subsequently added, making a new total site area of 217,268 m2. The total area of restored cliff was 37,624 m2, plus 9,187 m2 added in the annexed area. The total area of restored banks was 120,396 m2, plus 27,501 m2 added in the annexed area.
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