A YEAR OF REINVENTION AND RESILIENCE
A s 2025 draws to a close, it’s clear that South Africa’s quarrying sector has undergone one of its most defining years in the last decade. While the industry has always been characterised by resilience, this year demanded a deeper level of adaptability, strategic thinking, and long-term vision. Persistent power instability, rising input costs, and uneven construction activity continued to weigh heavily on quarrying oper- ations in 2025. Load management - even with the partial easing of load shedding - forced quarries to re-examine energy strategies, invest in backup systems, and optimise production windows. Fuel price fluctuations added financial pressure, amplifying the need for efficiency across drilling, blasting, crushing, and screening processes. Yet, despite these constraints, aggregate demand stabilised.
becoming a core operational skill. Environmental compliance tightened in 2025, and the indus- try responded. Water-recycling systems, low-emission machinery, biodiesel blending trials, and pro- gressive rehabilitation initiatives gained momentum. Community engagement models matured, with more quarries adopting trans- parent reporting frameworks and long-term land-use partnerships. The shift is no longer merely regulatory - customers, investors, and project owners are demanding measurable sustainability out- comes. Operations that invested early in responsible practices now find themselves ahead of the curve. One of the biggest concerns highlighted in 2025 is the widen- ing skills gap. The sector’s senior technical workforce is ageing, while younger entrants remain few. Yet the year also brought encouraging developments: new artisan training cohorts, revitalised learnerships, and targeted bursa- ries supported by industry asso- ciations and OEMs. Importantly, the industry is beginning to view training not as a cost, but as a strategic safeguard. Mergers and acquisition activity increased, particularly among mid- tier producers aiming to secure resources, strengthen logistics, or modernise fleets. Collaboration across value chains, from explo- sives suppliers to equipment OEMs to rehabilitation specialists, intensified as companies sought efficiency gains through partner- ship rather than competition. If 2025 has shown us anything, it is that the quarrying industry is far more dynamic than it appears from the outside. It is modernising, pro- fessionalising, and redefining its role in South Africa’s infrastruc- ture landscape. The challenges were real, but so was the progress - often incremental, sometimes bold, but always forward-moving.
Infrastructure repair, road rehabilitation programmes, and renewed momentum around strategic logistics corridors pro- vided much-needed consistency. Public sector delays remained a challenge, but pockets of growth signalled cautious optimism. Perhaps the most meaningful shift in 2025 was the mainstream- ing of digitalisation. Real-time fleet management systems, predictive maintenance algo- rithms, autonomous drilling trials, and hybrid mobile crushing fleets moved beyond early adopters. Mid-sized and even family-owned quarries began integrating acces- sible digital tools that improved plant utilisation and reduced downtime. Safety technology also advanced significantly: remote monitoring, fatigue-detection systems, and AI-powered compliance checks played a measurable role in lowering incident rates. Data literacy - once peripheral - is now
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Wilhelm du Plessis quarrying@crown.co.za ADVERTISING Erna Oosthuizen ernao@crown.co.za DESIGN Ano Shumba
CIRCULATION Karen Smith MANAGING DIRECTOR Karen Grant PRINTED BY: Tandym Print
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY: Crown Publications P O Box 140
Bedfordview, 2008 Tel: +27 11 622 4770 www.crown.co.za
TOTAL CIRCULATION Q3 2025: 3 927
The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.
Wilhelm du Plessis – Editor quarrying@crown.co.za
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MODERN QUARRYING QUARTER 4 | 2025
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