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Theofilos Tsokanis started working in the construction materials business when he was just seven years old - 52 years on he has a thriving family quarrying business. Claire Symes spoke to him to find out more. Many people working in the aggregates sector have long careers in the business during which they have gained good insight into the industry. But few can have as many years under their belt at as young an age as Greek-born Theofilos Tsokanis.

Use of a new mobile crushing system is making extraction of the final reserves from a hard rock quarry more economically viable Mountain View Quarry has been successfully worked by the Barro Group to create aggregates for the concrete market from the high quality basalt deposits near Drysdale in Victoria, Australia for 25 years.

Delivery of a new Sandvik DP1500i drilling rig is helping Carrieres de la Vallee Heureuse to improve production at its Pas de Calais quarry Famous for its Marquise Marble, the hard carboniferous limestone found in the Rinxent area of the Pas de Calais in France has been quarried since the Middle Ages.

As the TV cameras focus on the UK’s Silverstone racing circuit for the British Grand Prix this weekend, they will no doubt put the redeveloped pits, paddock and gravel traps centre stage. Hanson has just completed work to supply 24,000tonnes of aggregates and 15,000m3 of concrete as part of the £27million redevelopment work.

New pump technology is increasing flow rates, reaching greater heads and improving solids handling. ABE looks at the benefits for quarries. Managing drainage is an essential task in many European quarries as operators try to maximise reserves by extending below groundwater or coping with natural springs in the formation. These units not only allow for drier working conditions but also protect expensive equipment, so performance and reliability are key assets.

Installation of a wind pump at Lafarge’s Finningley sand and gravel quarry near Doncaster, UK to help solve flooding issues has helped the company win a sustainability award.

Reducing human interaction with machinery through greater automation is helping to deliver improved safety for quarry operators. Long gone are the days of breaking, loading and hauling rock by hand in quarries and as a result the safety of quarry workers has improved significantly. In recent years the safety has improved exponentially as greater automation has further distanced workers from the machines.

Heidelberg Cement has officially opened the latest phase of work to modernise its cement plant at Górazdze in Poland. The company has said that the plant it now the largest and most advanced cement plant in Europe.

Quarry operators with a long-term outlook still consider rigid dump trucks to be the most cost effective solution for hauling. Rigid dump trucks are frequently called the ultimate hauling machine but there are lots of different applications and whether it lives up to this accolade depends on how the customer uses the machine," said Caterpillar quarry and construction truck application specialist Dave Ellington. Cat is able to offer both ADTs and RDTs so is less biased than some manufacturers on what is best

Investment in new drilling rigs and breakers has helped one Vietnamese quarry avoid closure. ABE reports. Gaining permission to extract rock by blasting is getting more and more challenging and the situation is no different in Vietnam. The government has applied a blanket ban on blasting in any quarry close to its cities, but there is still a growing demand for aggregates in these urban areas. The Bien Hoa Building Materials Production and Construction Company (BBCC) quarry is located 32km east of Ho Chi Mi

Lafarge Granulats Ouest chairman Bénédicte de Bonnechose and Cetra Granulats chairman Manuel de Sousa have officially opened a new joint venture marine sand terminal in Britanny.

France-based quarry and construction materials association UNICEM has announced that it has reappointed Denis Maître as its chairman.

Maintaining tyres is an essential part of minimising operating costs as well as improving machine service life. The importance of tyre maintenance to maximise service life was put under the spotlight a few years ago with the global shortage of earthmover tyres. Now with more production and the economic slowdown, the shortage may be over but the need to reduce costs remains.

While demand for construction aggregates has been affected by the global recession, the call for marble appears to be unabated. Claire Symes visited a Portuguese marble quarry to find out more. Some of Europe's most prestigious hotels, museums, churches and piazzas owe some of their magnificence to the marble that lines the floors and walls of these structures. And it is demand for these materials for contemporary construction that is helping to maintain this market at a time when there is a slowdown in the

Exports, the backbone of the German economy, have been hit hard by the recession, and in the quarrying industry there is a mixture of pessimism and optimism Germany is the largest construction market in Europe, with over half of all investments in the country flowing into such projects.

Advances in technology are helping to deliver both improved hole straightness and BLAST detonations for better fragmentation. No matter how carefully the load and haul functions and crushing and screening processes have been designed, if the feed stock does not match the design, any efficiencies are lost. Improvements in drilling techniques and blasting technology are helping to deliver benefits that mean the actual blast matches the design more closely than ever before.

The European Commission has adopted new regulations to toughen up the control of explosives for civil use. Robert Camp looks at the implications for quarry operators Just days after the Madrid train bombings in 2004 in which 191 people were killed, the European Council published its Declaration on Combating Terrorism, which called for terrorist organisations and groups to be "starved of the components of their trade".

Six concrete producers in Hungary are being investigated by the competition office GVH because of suspected cartel activity.

Despite efforts, the EU's target to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010 (the International Year of Biodiversity) will not be reached. The UEPG outlines its plans. Thanks to its close relationship with nature and landscape, the aggregates industry has been aware of the importance of biodiversity for a long time, and has been very active in protecting it.

Environmental factors have played a key part in design of Lafarge’s newest ready mixed concrete plant in France.