Abstract:
Mining activities are influenced by stakeholders such as regulators, operators, service
providers, customers, residents, and other interest groups. The governing bodies seem to fail
to adopt a stakeholder inclusive approach to gain the balance between the interest of the
stakeholders and the organisational plans and revenues. Such issues are known at the
surface level, but no solid quantitative approach has been used to scientifically prove their
existence and associations. Thus, this study aims to find the issues with statistical evidence.
Convenient sampling was used due to time restrictions and new work norms to pick a
substantial number of respondents. A numerical assignment and logical ordering to
qualitative data were done to perform the quantitative analysis. Factor analysis was used to
find the principal components and the variables which mainly loaded the components
showed significant interpretable correlations. The most significant factors associated with
issues in quarry operations and management are found in terms of quality, reliability, and
usage of monitoring, application of safety measures, quarry type based hazardous
conditions, planning and maintaining quarry activities, combatting drilling issues via site
planning, use of initiation technique by quarry type, the impact of environmental and social
issues, handling public complaints and strategies to improve quarry operations.
Citation:
Kodithuwakku, K.K.S.N., Munaweera, S.P.M., Thanojan, T., Jayasundara, D.R.T., Jayawardena, C.L., Senadhira, A.M.A.D.M., & Wickrama, M.A.D.M.G. (2021). An exploratory factor analysis on issues and constraints in Sri Lankan aggregate quarry industry. In D.M.D.O.K. Dissanayake & C.L. Jayawardena (Eds.), Proceedings of International Symposium on Earth Resources Management & Environment 2021 (pp. 3-9). Department of Earth Resources Engineering, University of Moratuwa. https://uom.lk/sites/default/files/ere/files/ISERME%202021%20Proceedings_2.pdf