Minerals Extraction and Archaeology: A Practice Guide - CBI

AGREED BASIS FOR THE GUIDE5 The Forum agrees that:• A steady, adequate and sustainable supply of mineralsis essential to the nation’s prosperity, infrastructureand quality of life.• Minerals are finite and irreplaceable resources thatcan only be worked where they occur. Proposals forthe extraction of those resources will only proceedif the minerals operator considers the commercialrisk acceptable.• Archaeological remains are a finite and irreplaceableresource that may occur anywhere. In many casesthey are highly fragile and vulnerable to damageand destruction.• Archaeological resources are not all equal in value;those of international or national importance requirethe highest level of protection from competingdevelopment. Equally, few archaeological resourcesare without value and this can sometimes only beestablished by investigation.• It is the role of the planning system to reconcile theneeds of the historic environment and mineralsdevelopment in the context of sustainabledevelopment.These points are explained more fully below.A steady, adequate and sustainable supply ofminerals is essential6 ‘Minerals are essential to the nation’s prosperity andquality of life, not least in helping to create and developsustainable communities. It is essential that there is anadequate and steady supply of material to providethe infrastructure, buildings and goods that society,industry and the economy needs but that this provisionis made in accordance with the principles of sustainabledevelopment’, Minerals Policy Statement 1, paragraph 1(MPS1, DCLG 2006a).Minerals are finite and irreplaceable resources7 Mineral extraction can only occur where viableminerals are found. In that respect it is different frommost other forms of development in that the scope forconsidering alternative locations is limited by geology.Thisis especially true in the case of less abundant mineralssuch as coal, industrial minerals, silica sand and distinctivebuilding stone which themselves may be locally, regionallyor nationally important.What is often forgotten is thatalthough recyclable, primary minerals are finite andirreplaceable; in the context of sustainability, it is essentialto secure their prudent and efficient use and to preventneedless sterilisation of mineral resources.Archaeological remains are a finite andirreplaceable resource8 The removal of archaeological remains is an irreversibleprocess; once they have been removed they cannever be replaced. Humans have occupied England fromas far back as 700,000 years ago, and continuously sincethe last Ice Age around 13,000 years ago. Evidence ofhuman activity can be recognised in different forms andat different scales, ranging from the very local to wholelandscapes. Between areas, however, there can be largevariations in the number and type of archaeologicalremains.There is also likely to be a relationship betweenthe origin and age of a landform, the history of itssubsequent use by people, the likely characteristicsof any archaeological remains and the probability ofthem surviving.9 For example, remains are often abundant on sand andgravel terraces.This is because these areas are typicallyfree-draining and fertile, and were consequently favouredas locations for Neolithic monuments, later prehistoricand Roman settlements and field systems and Anglo-Saxon settlements. In hard-rock areas with little orno drift cover, the archaeological associations may bedifferent, typically comprising upstanding stone cairns,standing stones, house platforms, field systems, prehistoricrock art, rock shelters, cave sites and artefact scatters.Another important relationship between a landformand its archaeological potential is the occurrence ofPalaeolithic material – typically flint tools and faunalremains, such as mammoth bones – within sandand gravel deposits themselves.The likelihood ofencountering such remains depends on both the ageof the landform unit and the circumstances of itsdeposition. In some cases monitoring of archaeologicallysensitive deposits may form an important part ofa mitigation strategy, although the in situ preservationof such Palaeolithic remains will rarely be practicalor justified.4