ASPASA says it hopes the survey, compiled by the association's technical committee under the leadership of Saartjie Duvenage and Barry Pearce, will provide a snapshot of the industry and a baseline to gauge future interventions. It adds that this type of survey will be more commonly used in future and will allow benchmarking of the quality awareness of the industry in years to come.
ASPASA director Nico Pienaar said that no data exists on the use of formal quality standards to test the quality of products supplied. However, tighter requirements from building and construction professionals are driving ever-tighter tolerances, and aggregate suppliers need to be ready to meet future demand.
"In the quarrying industry many methods are used to determine the grade and type of sand and aggregate supplied," said Pienaar. "However, not all of them are acceptable in the modern built industry and may lead to disputes or the exclusion of certain suppliers in future.
"As a progressive industry, it is our intention to take the concerns of construction professionals seriously, measure the percentage of our members who have formal quality standards and respond with practical interventions that are tailored to requirements. These interventions may be in the form of training, guides or specially developed ASPASA quality standards that can be adapted to the minerals supplied by individual mines."
Pienaar said that the survey had been widely distributed and information gathered during the course of several weeks. Where data is inconclusive, or further information is required, the association may do follow-up surveys to pinpoint issues and challenges.
