Aggregates

The aggregate industry meant for road purposes is characterized by highly diversitied factors according to: nature of the deposits, which are generally quite heterogeneous as they comprise either detrital materials—mostly alluvial—or massive rocks which include mainly hard limestones for making concretes; type, complexity and scale of the aggregate processing plant, its efficiency often being higher, the larger its scale. Note : According to the introductory remarks in the revised version of CCTG, Part 23, there are around 4000 quarries and gravel pits in France producing 370 million tons, almost half of which goes into road-making. Of this total, alluvial deposits represent 64% and massive rocks 36%, of which 16% are limestones.