Posted on March 5, 2025
A new quarry has opened in Surrey which will aim to supply “key” infrastructure projects in London and the Surrey area by excavating more than one million tonnes of sand and gravel from area in the next five years.
Cemex UK has opened a new quarry in the Shepperton, which bosses say will be “crucial” in allowing them to “continue to supply the important London market” with sand and gravel for infrastructure projects.
The leading building material supplier stated that they plan on excavating 1.2million tonnes from the site in Gaston Bridge Road over a five year period. With an additional year being required to allow the company to complete the “restoration of the land back to agricultural use”.
Wayne Strevens, aggregates operations manager for Cemex UK, said: “The opening of this new quarry is crucial to ensure we can continue to supply the important London market. Sand and gravel reserves in this area are becoming harder and harder to secure.
“For this reason, we are extremely excited to open our new Shepperton Quarry following a significant investment into a new on-site processing plant. Shepperton will play a vital role in the future of our capital’s infrastructure development, ensuring that we can meet the growing demands of the city with a reliable supply of high-quality aggregates.”
Spelthorne, the borough which Shepperton is a part of, has a rich and long history of mining and mineral extraction. According to Spelthorne Borough Council, nearly a quarter of their land has been worked for minerals, with more than 200 former mineral extraction sites which date from 1876 to 1940 being identified through Ordnance Survey mapping.
According to the council, these sites were filled “long before” any controls existed on waste disposal; which now means they now “present a range of unknown contamination issues which need to be addressed”.
In 2014, it was reported that the borough had the highest population of employment in the the mining and quarrying industry in country. With reports at the time claiming Spelthorne is the the excavation capital of England and Wales.
Cemex UK is a leading supplier of building materials in the UK, which run more than 100 quarrying sites across the UK. In Surrey, Cemex operates a concrete plant in Leatherhead, and just outside the county’s borders, the company runs three plants and quarries in the Slough and Windsor areas.
