Pilot Projects
Learn about the Heritage Project’s pilot phase.
The Mini-Heritage
With the help of experts, Graymont built a protective mound on its property that emulates conditions similar to the hills that will make up the new Regional Park and green space. We call this initiative the “Mini-Heritage”. It is essentially a hill constructed of unusable stone overburden on which vegetation and plant tests were conducted. The objective was to find the optimal conditions allowing for the growth of plants and trees that fit well into the region’s landscape. Over the course of several years, these tests have led to a Development Plan that combines stability, sustainability, productivity and aesthetics.
The Maska Project
Located on a neighbouring property in Stanbridge Station, the Maska Project was launched in 2015. It was one of the first steps leading up to the Heritage Project. It involved creating a hill from the same sort of unusable stone that will be utilized in the Heritage Project, providing a platform on which to test different technologies and construction practices. Those tests enabled Graymont to identify impact-mitigation measures related to on-site transportation of materials, as well as best-available techniques for creating the three hills of the Heritage Project.
Such testing will continue until at least 2019, at which point construction of the 30-meter-tall Maska Project will have consumed approximately 1.6 million tonnes of non-recoverable stone.
For more details concerning the Heritage Project’s impact-mitigation measures, please visit the Responsible Management page.