A North American perspective on land use and mineral aggregate production

Abstract

Land use conflicts involving natural aggregate producers often result in the sterilization of aggregate resources like crushed stone, sand and gravel when land management policies render potential resources inaccessible. Transport plays a major role in the cost structure of aggregates. Limiting the sources of aggregate, thereby increasing transport costs, will translate into unnecessary social costs. Sequential land use is examined for conventional aggregate and multiple land use for marine and recycled aggregates. The integration of aggregate production within the land management planning process would preserve the natural resource stock of aggregate and also be economically efficient.