• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.581-594
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• 2021

In 2020, about 132 million m³ of aggregate was produced in Korea. Of the total domestic aggregates produced in 2020, about 33.3 % was sand and about 66.7% was gravel. It estimated that of the 132 million m³ of aggregates in Korea in 2020, about 52% was produced by screening crushed aggregate, by 36% by forest aggregate, 3% by land aggregate, 5.6% by sea aggregate and 2.5% by washing each other, and 0.4% by river aggregate. This indicates that screening crushed aggregate and forest aggregate are the main producers of domestic aggregates. Leading producing metropolitan cities were Gyeonggi-do, Gyeongsangnam-do, Chungcheongbuk-do, Gangwon-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Incheon in order decreasing volume, which together accounted for about 72.4% of total product. In 2020, aggregates were produced in 153 cities, about 67% of the 231 cities of Korea, 38 local governments have developed aggregates of more than 1 million m³, and the combined production of the 38 cities accounted for about 65% of national total. This means that the aggregate extraction trend of local governments is becoming larger and more concentrated. In 2020, at 153 local governments, a total of 889 operations produced aggregates with 420 operations by permission, 469 operations by declaration. A review of production by size of operation indicated that about 17 million m³ (12.8% of the total aggregate) was produced by 14 operations reporting production of more than 1 million m³. In about 420 operations, the maximum period of permit is 32 years to at least 2 months. When the remaining period of permit is taken into account, only about 55% of active operations can be developed the aggregate after 2021. In order to maintain the permitted aggregate volume by 2020 level, it will be necessary to obtain an extension permit or find new operation sites for at least 200 or more operations.