GSM gains approval for Roussas

GSM has had permission to operate an open-air quarry in south-west France withdrawn due to an impact study's perceived failure to sufficiently consider animals of protected status.

GSM is aiming to improve delivery of aggregates in the Paris region with an order for two new 840tonne capacity barges from Poland. The Italcementi subsidiary will use the 40m long vessels to make deliveries along the Seine.

GSM has had permission to operate an open-air quarry in south-west France withdrawn due to an impact study’s perceived failure to sufficiently consider animals of protected status. The cement company and the state must each pay €1,000 to the town of Lahontan, near to where the 26-hectare quarry is based, following the decision by the Bordeaux administrative appeals court to annul GSM’s operating approval granted in 2008.

Cemex Granulats Sud-Ouest (Cemex) has been granted authorisation to exploit an open air sand and gravel quarry in Saint-Cricq-du-Gave and Lahontan, France.

Cemex's extraction permit was initially annulled by the Appeals Court in Bordeaux in December 2010, but the case was taken to the Cassation Court before being approved by inter-prefectoral order, despite opposition from the Lahontan Council and L'Association de Défense et de Valorisation du Pays d'Abet.

Authorisation concerns 140hectares of existin