Hardstone quarry proposed at Bengħajsa

A new quarry is being proposed over a 6,200sq.m plot of agricultural land at Bengħajsa, in Birżebbuġa.

The lower coralline quarry is proposed in an area recognised for landscape value, just off Triq il-Fortizza less than 200m away from the shoreline.

If approved, the quarry will touch on the buffer zone of an Area of Ecological Importance just 300m away from the privately-owned Bengħajsa fort, which is currently in a dilapidated state.

The quarry is being proposed by Paul Falzon, who owns a number of other quarries in Dingli and Rabat. Falzon does not own the land in question but was granted consent by the landowners to apply. In the past years the Planning Authority has issued a number of permits related to agriculture on the same site.

The site formed part of an area between Hal Far and the Freeport designated as a ‘primary development area’ in the 1960s for possible eventual industrial use. The Structure Plan confirmed the designation, subject to a policy which delays use of this land until needs arise which cannot be accommodated elsewhere. Since then, the Structure Plan was superseded by the SPED, which designates the site as an Area of Landscape Protection.

Coralline limestone (hardstone) is more difficult to quarry than soft limestone and requires blasting operations. Hardstone is usually used for the preparation of cement, for concrete mixing and for roadbeds. The stone is then processed into fragments by crushing machines and then sorted according to the particle size.

The Minerals Subject Plan of 2002 states that hardstone quarries are mostly found alongside the west and northwest cost of Malta, as well as in the central areas alongside Wied il-Għasel and Naxxar.

Malta’s largest hardstone quarry, owned by Charles Polidano, is located at Lapsi next to the coastal cliffs at Ix-Xaqqa bordering the Irdumijiet ta’ Malta Special Area of Conservation (SAC).