Standard Concrete Industries, a division of Basic Industries Limited has started full scale production of crushed aggregates from hard rock extracted from its newly established super quarry located at the foothills of the Sleeping Giant Mountain Range in Sabeto, Nadi.

The Sabeto quarry is dubbed a Super Quarry due to the relatively large rock resource it sits on when compared with other local quarries. With an estimated total quantity of rock in excess of 10 million cubic metres, its expected quarry life under current extraction rates is at least 50 years. The rock found at the quarry is an igneous type rock ideal for the production of quarry aggregates.

In the past, Standard Concrete’s Nadi Crushing Plant had relied on river gravel as its only source of raw material which is a fast depleting resource in the greater Nadi area. However, in 2004, the company embarked on a strategic move to establish a long-term hard rock resource in the Nadi/Lautoka area. After 4 years of geological research, landowner negotiations, environmental impact assessment studies, statutory requirements applications and approvals, initial quarry and access road establishment, an environmentally sustainable hard rock resource has finally been established in the area.

The quarry will not only benefit the company but the economy as a whole as it is located in the heart of the nation’s tourism industry, and thus will provide an unlimited source of high quality aggregates for major hotels and infrastructure development in the area. Exporting aggregates to other South Pacific Island nations that do not have aggregate sources of their own is a growing market for the company and also a potential foreign income earner for the country.

The establishment of the Sabeto Quarry is a major achievement for Standard Concrete in terms of environmental concerns as it has enabled the company to move away from river gravel extraction to hard rock quarrying which has a far less damaging effect on the environment.

The company continuously monitors on a daily basis, the impact of its operations on the environment.


About Standard Concrete Industries
Standard Concrete Industries is a major division of Basic Industries Limited, a company jointly owned by Fijian Holdings Limited and Holcim New Zealand Limited, a leading supplier of cement, aggregates, ready mixed concrete and lime.