Southwestern Edgefield County, not far from North Augusta, could gain a 600,000-ton-a-year crushed stone operation if state permitting comes through and the conditional use permit granted for what’s proposed as a 70-year investment by Luck Stone.
The Virginia-based subsidiary of Luck Companies already has operations in Chester, Kershaw, Fairfield and Spartanburg counties.
About two years’ surveying of the area in and around Edgefield County eventually identified 435 acres north of Woodlawn Road, near the McCormick County line, as viable for a quarry, Katie Kosloski, Greenfield development manager for Luck Stone, told Edgefield County Council this month.
Once it reaches a point of full operation, the quarry is expected to produce 600,000 tons of crushed stone a year, with operations viable for 70 years.
Crushed stone is used in concrete and foundations for streets and building construction alike.
“It’s the material that provides the foundation of the roads that we drive on, the hospitals that we visit, the schools that we send our children to and the homes that we reside every night,” Kosloski said.
Another subsidiary, Luck Ecosystems, was formed out of Luck Stone as a solution for making use of the waste material, “the material that you have to remove to get down to the material that can create those construction aggregate materials generated in quarry operations,” she said. That waste is then used to create environmental performance products, namely, streambed restoration materials.
Kosloski said the company understands the high level of trust needed both from nearby residents and from the local government.
What Luck Stone is touting as “a rural economic development project” centers on development of the quarry, but with that new industry is a proposal by Luck to also create recreation areas and a possible trail connection along Stevens Creek.
Kosloski said a phone call campaign to surrounding residents was conducted the first week of April and that a community information meeting will take place toward the beginning of May.
The estimated timeline, if all pieces come together, is for construction to begin in the next two to five years, this timeline dependent on market and economy, Kosloski said.
