Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environmental impact.
A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used either as nature reserves, or as amenity areas for water sports, landfills and walking. In Germany former gravel or sand pits that have filled up with water are known as Baggersee and popular for recreational use. In addition, many gravel pits in the United Kingdom have been stocked with freshwater fish such as the common carp to create coarse fishing locations. Gravel and sand are mined for concrete, construction aggregate and other industrial mineral uses.
The National Mining Association (NMA) is a United States trade organization that lists itself as the voice of the mining industry in Washington, D.C. NMA was formed in 1995, and has more than 300 corporate members.
Birds Hill is an unincorporated community in the Canadian province of Manitoba located a few kilometers northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the Rural Municipality of East St. Paul. The community is a few kilometers east of the Red River The R.M. of East St. Paul's Administration and Finance Departments, Fire Department, municipal council chambers, and RCMP offices are located in Birds Hill. The community includes Silverfox Estates and the Country Villas, which is Manitoba's first resort age-restricted adult-only gated community. Built in 1998, this residential area is an exclusively low-density community where 163 detached, single-family homes are on private landscaped sites.
Granite Construction Inc. is a civil construction company and aggregate producer, a member of the S&P 600 Index based and founded in Watsonville, California, and is the parent corporation of Granite Construction Company. The company is both a heavy civil construction contractor and construction aggregate manufacturer, owning or leasing quarries in several Western states for extracting mostly sands, gravel, and crushed stone products. Most of Granite's operations exist within the state of California, with some attention given to operations outside of where the company was founded.
The American Highway Users Alliance, is a non-profit advocacy group representing many businesses in the automotive and road construction sector. The organization, which was founded by General Motors and others in 1932, merged with the Automotive Safety Foundation and Auto Industries Highway Safety Committee in 1970.
Construction aggregate, or simply aggregate, is a broad category of coarse- to medium-grained particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, recycled concrete and geosynthetic aggregates. Aggregates are the most mined materials in the world. Aggregates are a component of composite materials such as concrete and asphalt; the aggregate serves as reinforcement to add strength to the overall composite material. Due to the relatively high hydraulic conductivity value as compared to most soils, aggregates are widely used in drainage applications such as foundation and French drains, septic drain fields, retaining wall drains, and roadside edge drains. Aggregates are also used as base material under foundations, roads, and railroads. In other words, aggregates are used as a stable foundation or road/rail base with predictable, uniform properties, or as a low-cost extender that binds with more expensive cement or asphalt to form concrete. Although most kinds of aggregate require a form of binding agent, there are types of self-binding aggregate which do not require any form of binding agent.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) veterans organization founded by Paul Rieckhoff, an American writer, social entrepreneur, advocate, activist and veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War. He served as an Army First Lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader in Iraq from 2003 through 2004. Rieckhoff was released from the Army National Guard in 2007.
Aggregate Industries, a member of the Holcim Group, is a company based in the United Kingdom with headquarters at Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire. Aggregate Industries manufactures and supplies a range of heavy building materials, primarily aggregates such as stone, asphalt and concrete, to the construction industry and other business sectors. Aggregate Industries also manufactures and imports cement, and provides a range of aggregate-associated goods and services, these include the manufacture of masonry and reconstructed stone items for construction industry and domestic applications, the manufacture of pre-cast concrete items, the supply of ready mixed concrete, design and project management consulting, and resurfacing contracting services.
Crushed stone or angular rock is a form of construction aggregate, typically produced by mining a suitable rock deposit and breaking the removed rock down to the desired size using crushers. It is distinct from naturally occurring gravel, which is produced by natural processes of weathering and erosion and typically has a more rounded shape.
The Leiths Group is a group of construction-related companies based in Cove, Aberdeen, Scotland. The group includes the following companies:
Superior Industries, Inc. is an American manufacturing company headquartered in Morris, Minnesota. The company engineers, manufactures, sells and supports dry bulk processing and handling equipment and components. In 2008, Superior acquired Westmor Industries, a manufacturer and distributor of energy storage, transportation and dispensing equipment also headquartered in Morris.
Mining in the United Kingdom produces a wide variety of fossil fuels, metals, and industrial minerals due to its complex geology. In 2013, there were over 2,000 active mines, quarries, and offshore drilling sites on the continental land mass of the United Kingdom producing £34bn of minerals and employing 36,000 people.
The Ports-to-Plains Alliance, based in Lubbock, Texas, United States, is a non-profit, bipartisan, advocacy group led by mayors, council persons and other local elected leaders, economic development officials, business and other opinion leaders from nine states and one Canadian province (Alberta) which contains a 2,300-plus mile economic development corridor stretching from Texas to Alberta.
The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is the United Kingdom trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar, and silica sand industries.
Breedon Group plc is an AIM-listed British construction materials company headquartered at Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire, England. In 2016 Breedon became the UK's largest independent construction materials firm following its acquisition of Hope Construction Materials and in 2018 extended its operations into Ireland with the acquisition of Lagan Group.
Oldcastle Materials Inc. is a leading supplier of asphalt, concrete, and other building materials, and also offers construction and paving services. The Atlanta-based company is a subsidiary of CRH plc, a publicly traded international group of diversified building materials businesses, and has approximately 18,000 employees at 1,200 locations, as of March 2018.
In 2017, the aggregate industry in the United States mined and sold 2.12 billion metric tons of crushed rock, sand and gravel valued at US$20.9 billion. There are thousands of aggregate-producing companies in the US, operating in each of the 50 states, and employing 105,000 people. Most aggregate is used by the construction industry, where it is an essential raw material and the main ingredient in concrete and asphalt concrete.
