ALSF Research Reports in the EIG

    ‘Grey Literature’ Archive    

Preserving access to technical and policy research on aggregates, geology and sustainable mineral resources.

As well as running professional conferences and other meetings, EIG also publishes conference proceedings and other documents which are of relevance to various aspects of mineral extraction. As part of this wider remit, the EIG Website now provides access to a wide range of technical and policy-oriented research reports, good-practice guidance, and other valuable documents produced between 2002 and 2012, with support from the former Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF)[1]. 

Such reports are often referred to as ‘Grey Literature’, because they are not published in recognised scientific journals and, following the demise of the ALSF and the Sustainable Aggregates website which previously hosted the reports, they have been difficult to access. 

Many of the reports are of considerable value, not least because they focus on directly relevant applied research geared specifically towards addressing issues related to mineral extraction. Many will also be of interest to education at various levels, and to academic research.

The EIG Grey Literature Archive has been created to preserve access to these important documents and to provide a searchable catalogue for the benefit of future generations of researchers, students, mineral operators, planning authorities, regulators and consultants.

Having been specifically intended for wide dissemination and paid for by public funds, the reports are freely available for anyone to download. Unless stated otherwise within individual reports, the material is free of copyright. 

[1] The Aggregates Levy was introduced by the Treasury in April 2002, with the intention of “creating environmental benefits” by increasing the market price of primary aggregates, and (as a consequence) by encouraging the greater use of alternative (secondary and recycled) materials. Despite this, there remains a substantial and ongoing requirement for primary aggregate extraction, and thus a need to control the associated environmental impacts. The Aggregates Levy itself has never been able to address these ‘residual’ effects and, for this reason, part of the revenue raised by the Levy was, for a time, used to implement the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF). This enabled additional, more targeted initiatives to reduce these effects and create a range of environmental benefits. The funding was focused primarily on projects that sought to provide those benefits directly, for example, by creating new habitats in areas affected by past extraction or by providing recreational access to such sites so they may be more widely enjoyed by local communities. A much smaller, but still significant proportion of the funding, however, was used to support a variety of research projects, both on land and in the marine environment.

  • Contemporary relevance: In some cases (for example, in reports that identify good-practice techniques for mineral extraction, environmental monitoring, or mitigation), the recommendations may have been superseded by more recent developments. In others, quoted statistics may have been superseded by more recent data. In many cases, the planning and other policy background information referred to within the reports will have changed considerably since the reports were issued. This needs to be borne in mind when using the reports and care will need to be taken to link their findings to current policy requirements. Nevertheless, the reports provide invaluable sources of information and ideas that may still be used in the interests of controlling or avoiding potential adverse environmental effects.

    Quality: In terms of accuracy, reliability and overall quality of research, an important note of caution must be given. Some of the projects were commissioned by (or in conjunction with) central Government Departments or Agencies and, in such cases, the research is likely to have been overseen by Steering Committees, made up of minerals industry professionals, regulators, environmental NGOs and/or other interest groups, thus ensuring that the final reports were subject to a high standard of Peer Review. In other cases, however, where this was not the case, the reports will often have been subject only to internal checking by the authors and their professional colleagues and to financial checks by the funding organisations involved.    

    For these reasons, no warranty can be given by EIG Conferences Limited as to the accuracy, reliability or continued relevance of anything contained within any of the reports. It is for the users of these reports to confirm their status (e.g. by reference to any acknowledgements given in the reports to Steering Group members) and to verify the accuracy of their content. 

    Scope of Research: ALSF research projects were promoted and run by a number of formal ‘Delivery Partners’. These included the former Minerals Industry Research Organisation (MIRO), the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), the former Department of Trade and Industry (DTi), the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), English Heritage (EH), Natural England (NE), and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS). Whilst the last of these was devoted to large-scale marine-based projects, all the others were primarily focused on land-based research.

    Using the Reports: Taken together, a substantial volume of research was funded by the ALSF between 2002 and 2012, with a gradual shift in priorities over time from detailed studies of impacts and mitigation methods and demonstrations of good practice to more strategic overviews and dissemination projects. The EIG archive provides a full list of completed reports (currently limited to land-based technical research funded by MIRO, ODPM, WRAP and Natural England), arranged by broad topic areas, any of which can be accessed and downloaded simply by clicking the ‘View PDF’ button next to the required item. The search facility also allows reports to be filtered by words used in project titles, authors, or organisations. Additional details of marine research projects and the large archive of English Heritage projects will be added to the archive in due course.

    Overview Reports:  During 2008, a series of twelve Benchmark Reports were produced, covering each of the main research areas funded through the MIRO, ODPM and English Heritage programmes. Each of these provides a very useful overview of the topic and summarises the ‘state of the art’ in each area of work, at that time. The reports were written by recognised experts in their fields and peer-reviewed by industry representatives and other key stakeholder groups. To varying degrees, they also ‘signpost’ relevant individual research reports, which provide further detail – all of which can be accessed from this site. The Benchmark Reports thus provide an ideal starting point for anyone wishing to review ALSF research findings. They are grouped under four main themes as shown below.

    Theme 1: Reducing the environmental effect

    1. Water Environment (AL023)

    2. Dust, Noise and Vibration (AL024)

    3. Transport (AL025)

    Theme 2: Sustainable provision of aggregates

    4. Assessment and Planning (AL026)

    5. Optimising the Efficiency of Primary Aggregates Production (AL027)

    6. Sustainable Utilisation of Quarry By-products (AL028)

    Theme 3: Creating environmental improvements

    7. Biodiversity (AL029)

    8. Geodiversity (AL030)

    9. Restoration (AL031)

    Theme 4 Heritage

    10. Rich Deposits: aggregate extraction, research and the knowledge pool (AL032)

    11. Sustainable Heritage: aggregate extraction and management of the historic environment (AL033)

    12. The Sands of Time: aggregate extraction, heritage and the public (AL034)

    In addition to these twelve reports, there is an overall Synopsis Report (AL035), summarising all of the others, and a separate ‘Overview’ report (AL036). The latter provides an outline of the design and management approaches available for reducing the environmental footprint of a quarry throughout its lifecycle. This identifies the elements of the environmental footprint and the range of environmental effects associated with each, and then addresses how these are avoided, mitigated, or incorporated into the delivery of long-, medium-, and short-term environmental benefits. Chapters covering health and safety and stakeholder engagement are also included.

    In the final years of the ALSF, between 2009 and 2012, MIRO’s Aggregates Strategic Research Programme (ASRP) examined various aspects of the sustainable production and supply of aggregates in the years ahead. These projects followed on from the benchmark reviews and, to some extent, were guided by research gaps identified in those documents. They are therefore worthy of specific mention. Their overall objective was to provide an enhanced evidence base for policymakers and decision-takers in central and local government, industry, and other sectors, thereby informing their actions to secure sustainable aggregates production and supply in the UK in the future. The individual projects in this series, with links to their final reports (in some cases with different titles), were as follows:

    ·         Develop a horizon scan for the production of aggregates. (AL002)

    ·         Develop an ecosystems approach to decision-making in the planning and restoration of aggregates quarries. (AL003)

    ·         Evaluate the environmental impacts of aggregates within designated areas. (AL014)

    ·         An evidence-based approach to predicting the future supply of aggregate resources in England. (AL015)

    ·         Scoping study for assessing decisions on when to build new rather than adapt old housing. (AL016)

    ·         Assess the design of lorries and quarries for aggregates transport. (AL017)

    ·         Assess the feasibility of using pipelines to transport aggregates. (AL018)

    ·         Distributing bulk minerals to future markets. (AL019)

    ·         Assessing the environmental impact of regional and sub-regional supply options. (AL020)

    ·         The barriers to underground mining of aggregates – An overview. (AL021)

    ‍·         Assess the feasibility of underground mining of aggregates. (AL022)

    Finally, a Synthesis Report (AL001) was produced in 2012 to distil the key messages from all eleven strategic reports and highlight their relevance for future policy. ‍

    Compiled, September 2026 by Dr. Alan Thompson (Director, Cuesta Consulting Limited; Chairman: Extractive Industry Geology Conference, University of Liverpool, 2026; and former Science Coordinator, land-based research, Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund).