The investigation that was presented today to entrepreneurs and local municipalities was performed in 2018 on the order of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and in co-operation with the experts of the Ministry of the Environment. The demand for this investigation is a result from increased consumption and related problems, the solving of which requires state-operated regulation.
The head of the EGT Department of Geological Resources, Heikki Bauert: „Out of construction minerals found in the Harju County, mainly construction limestone, sand and gravel are mined.” The purpose of the fresh study was to put together the information of the construction mineral resources in the Harju County, assess the security of supply until 2030 and prospects of supply until 2050.“
EGT senior geologist, Janne Tamm: „The task of the Geological Survey of Estonia in this study was to clarify the distribution and quality of construction minerals in the Harju County at the basis of earlier research, and to propose prospective areas for ensuring long-term security of supply of construction minerals in the region. Further on, putting the resources into use is already an issue within the decision competence the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.“
In order to secure the supply of construction minerals in the Harju County, EGT has suggested to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications:
-to maximize the opportunities for mining high-quality construction limestone in the Harku and Maardu deposits and in their vicinity, open quarries within the Jägala deposit, and perform geological exploration in the Paldiski prospective area;
-re-evaluate the accounted reserve of construction sand and gravel in the list of deposits at the basis of the requirements for construction raw material, and perform geological exploration in the Kuusalu prospective area for ensuring security of supply of construction sand in the region until 2050;
-give Statistics Estonia a recommendation to develop a data management system for the use, export and import of construction minerals, and at the basis of these data to analyse the national need for amount of mined construction minerals.
Together with construction minerals in the Harju County, the report dealt with the possibilities of using waste rock of oil shale, oil shale ash, limestone fines, and re-use of building and demolishing waste as alternative construction materials.
See the study report.