b'COVER STORYevery minute of every day. Whether its the windows in homes and office buildings or filtering and purification of water, aggregate plays a significant role in the day-to-day lives of Ontarians.Here is a short list of some of the key uses: There remains much confusion over the amount of 1. Concrete,cementandmortar:Theaggregate taken out of groundlargest percentage of aggregate is usedeach year in Ontariofor manufacturing concrete and cement. Mortar for bonding bricks and cement blocks also use aggregate. 5. Agriculture:Aggregate(particularlyneed to examine the actual numbers and thelimestone)isusedintheagriculturalprocess whereby aggregate requirements are 2. Asphalt and roadstone: Roads and othersectortoincreasethelimecontentdetermined annually by producers. pavementuses(e.g.,airportrunways,of soil for crops and trees that is lost schoolplaygrounds,etc.)accountforbyrainwaterleachingandtheuseAccording to Norm Cheesman, executive thesecond-largestuseofaggregate.of fertilizers. directoroftheOntarioStone,Sandand UnpavedroadsandparkingareasGravel Association (OSSGA), The average alsouseaggregatetocreateamore6.Waterfiltration,drainageandpipeannualproductionofaggregateinthe stablesurfaceforvehiclesinalltypesprotection:Aggregateisusedforprovinceoverthelastnumberofyears of weather. waterfiltrationandsewagetreatmenthasbeen164,000milliontonnes.Andthe processes,todrainsurfacewater,amountofaggregateusedinOntariohas 3. Foundations:Aggregateisusedandtoprotectundergroundpipesbeen approximately 164,000 million tonnes. aroundbuildingfoundationsduringand conduits. What that simply means is that producers construction as backfill because it willmatch their production to meet the needs of 7. Whitening agents and fillers: Aggregatetheir customers. They only extract what they easily compact in comparison to soil and create a solid base for the building that is(particularly limestone) is used to makeare able to sell. This is exactly the same as a resilient to the effects of weather. whitening agents and fillers for a varietygood baker who only bakes as many loaves of uses, including paper, paint, plasticsof bread as he or she is able to sell.4.Railway ballast: Aggregate provides theand cleaning products.bed to support railway tracks and theCheesman adds that some of the confusion enormous weight of a loaded train asHOW MUCH STONE, SAND ANDonthistopicstemsfromthedifference well as to protect the ground aroundGRAVEL DO WE USE IN ONTARIO? between the amount of aggregate taken out thetrackandundergroundstructuresInrecentyears,theannualvolumeofof the ground each year (produced) and the the tracks pass over. Railway aggregateaggregate extracted from pits and quarriesamountoflandthatproducershavethat ismadefromtougherstone(e.g.,in Ontario has been questioned by interesthas been granted a licence to extract under igneous rock) and contains large piecesgroups, particularly whether this amount isthe ARA. Aggregate producers need to have in themix. really needed. To sort out this issue, wemany aggregate licences located in various places across the province for a number of important reasons:Aggregate only exists where nature putit.Createdbyglaciersandgeological forces over hundreds and thousands of years,theamountofstone,sandand gravelvariessignificantlyacrossthe province.Inaddition,dependingon Our Docks Are Ready to Serve the formulation of the material, some is very strong, some is not. Going back Thanks for Sailing With Us Since 1954 to our baker example, you can think of it like different types of flour. It takes Since 1954 Southwestern Sales has provided high quality aggregates and shippingavarietyofproductsthatneedtobe services from quarries throughout the Great Lakes. Our network of ships, barges,mixed together to get the right kind of docks and trucks enables us to move a variety of bulk commodities in the mostaggregate for its use. Often, that means economical manner for our customers. Full-service operations are available at ouryou take a little bit from one site, a little docking facilities in West Windsor, East Windsor, Kingsville, Sarnia and Sombra. bit from another site, and blend them CrushedStoneSandShippingCargoHandlingTrucking together to get the right mix.Southwestern Sales Corporation Limited Anotherimportantfactoristhat 100 Lesperance Road, Unit 5, Tecumseh, Ontario N8N 1W1Phone: (519) 735-9822Fax: (519) 735-1913 theaggregatehastobeclosetothe www.southwesternsales.ca project.Frombothaneconomicand environmental point of view, you want 10 AVENUESWINTER 2023'