"Gravel Off the Gold Coast"

A Presentation by Ian Duff

Videos from the APAO Annual General Meeting 2002

Having driven through the dark night, we arrived at a small hotel in Axim in the early hours of the morning.

I filmed the arrival of morning initially from my balcony and thereafter during a venture down the main street of Axim at 4:30 am… all is still dark but a setting of 4 frames a second on the video camera captured the following:

"Axim Awakes" Video

Land-based Pits and Quarries

Aggregate costs a lot in Ghana… Prices can exceed 10 to 20 dollars US per tonne before delivery. You have to wait a long time until you get it, sometimes months at a time for just 1 single axle truckload.

Here is a look at how aggregate is produced in many parts of Ghana:

Quarry Visit

Any sizable quarry operation is usually located very far from the market, as much as 210 km

The geology of the region of course affects this but so does the fact that lands are owned by all Africans and therefore acquiring ownership is difficult due to land disputes etc.

Most land-based sources of aggregate are quarries. Exposed gravel has broken down over time in the constant heat near the equator and turned into the reddish soil or laterite used in a lot of construction

Current Aggregate supply cannot keep up with demand and so jobs sit and wait and lose money… it’s a vicious cycle

Although slowing developing, the current aggregate industry in Ghana lacks the simple know-how that we in the APAO have shared since 1956.

They are forced to use outdated, rundown equipment that is shipped to them that no one in the Western World would bother with

They receive funding from many places, have many construction jobs to perform. They are very similar to Ontario in many ways except there is one thing lacking... a cheap source of quality aggregate close to market.

"Road Building in Ghana" Video

Building The Pan-African Highway System

Being far from market, current quarries are faced with huge transportation challenges.

From the few larger quarries mid-country, trucks drive in military-style convoys as much as 420 km each day on very rough roads to deliver only one load of aggregate.

The roads are rough because they use very little aggregate (costly and scarce) and they build on top of spongy, loose laterite.

 Potholes form quickly and the rainy season greatly shortens the life of most roads.

Here is a video that shows both the size of some of the construction projects in Ghana and the techniques used:

Click Here
If you experience any problems downloading or viewing the videos,
 please let me know... Ian Duff