Warn­ings over il­le­gal quar­ry op­er­a­tions and a crit­i­cal short­fall in ag­gre­gate sup­ply are in­ten­si­fy­ing ten­sions in the min­er­als sec­tor, as quar­ry op­er­a­tors ac­cuse Gov­ern­ment of main­tain­ing the “sta­tus quo” through its lat­est round of hold-over li­cences.

A po­ten­tial short­age of con­struc­tion ma­te­ri­als and grow­ing frus­tra­tion among quar­ry op­er­a­tors have placed the min­er­als sec­tor un­der re­newed strain fol­low­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to is­sue 25 hold-over li­cences to bona fide op­er­a­tors.

Pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Ag­gre­gate Pro­duc­ers Al­liance (TTA­PA), Nigel Tenia, warned that the coun­try is fac­ing a widen­ing gap be­tween ag­gre­gate de­mand and pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty as ma­jor in­fra­struc­ture projects move for­ward.