The company, under the name of Burnham 2020 Ltd, has applied for resource consent to turn a 361.9ha dairy farm on the intersection of Grange and Aylesbury Rds near Burnham into a quarry.
Fletcher Construction purchased the land in 2021. If approved, the quarry will be located about 5km from Rolleston and 500 metres from Burnham Military Camp.
Fletcher Concrete and Infrastructure Ltd, trading as Winstone Aggregates, currently owns and operates the nearby Wheatsheaf Quarry on Selwyn Rd, Broadfield, and previously owned and operated the Yaldhurst Quarry on West Coast Rd.
The company said Yaldhurst Quarry is no longer active, while Wheatsheaf Quarry has about six years left to operate.
“Quarries which would normally be expected to provide aggregates for many decades have been depleted much earlier as building and construction returns Christchurch to a livable, vibrant city for future generations.”
The company mines aggregate used to make concrete and in the construction and maintenance of roads, footpaths, large-scale infrastructure, housing and landscaping.
The proposed site is zoned as general rural, which allows primary production activities, including quarrying and the processing of aggregate.
Croft said areas of the property not being mined will still be used for farming, with the quarry only using 40ha at a time.
“We are proposing an innovative approach to operation of this quarry site.
“Farming operations will continue to be the main activity on the property, with only a relatively small portion of the site, well set back, under quarry development at any one time.
“Each area, once quarried, will be rehabilitated and returned to farmland.’’
As part of being transparent with the local community, Croft said Fletcher Building requested the application be opened up for public submissions.
“We look forward to continuing to engage with the community during the consenting process over the coming months.”
