MINING

IQ awards Honorary Fellowship for outstanding contribution

After almost half a century working in the quarrying and mineral products industries, the Institute of Quarrying (IQ) has recognised the outstanding contribution of Roy Bush, Health & Safety Director for British Aggregates Association (BAA), with the award of an Honorary Fellowship.

 Roy Bush receiving his honorary fellowship from Viv Russell, IQ president

Roy Bush receiving his honorary fellowship from Viv Russell, IQ president

Bush has served on the councils of the Institute of Quarrying and the Minerals Products Qualifications Council (MPQC). He currently represents the BAA at the Extractives Industry Strategic Health and Safety Forum and continues to play an instrumental role within Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee (QNJAC), sitting on all of the working groups, as well as the main board.

Viv Russell, president of the IQ, said: "It was a particularly proud moment for me to present Roy with his Honorary Fellowship, recognising all his hard work for both IQ and the QNJAC. Roy has always taken a pragmatic approach towards health and safety by becoming a finder of solutions rather than a creator of problems. I would like to personally thank Roy for his hard work and contributions over the years."

I was very humbled and grateful for the privilege

Receiving the Honorary Fellowship, Bush said: "After my initial surprise and shock of being presented with the award, which I genuinely had no idea I was about to receive, I was very humbled and grateful for the privilege. I would like to thank everyone who was involved for their support and kind words. Moments like these remind me what an amazing industry this is to be part of."

Starting his quarrying career in 1974, Bush worked for Mixconcrete Aggregates as a laboratory technician, before taking on a commercial role. Following the take-over in 1982 of Mixconcrete by Pioneer Aggregates UK, Bush became an operations manager at one of the company's sand and gravel quarries, before spending four years at a quarry specialising in igneous rock and shale.

He later became an area manager for Pioneer Aggregates, overseeing two large limestone quarries in north Yorkshire and north Wales, as well as a development site in the north-east and an ex-quarry landfill site in the Midlands.

With his extensive operational experience, Bush then spent 24 years working for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as an HM specialist inspector. He said: "For many years I was responsible for carrying out quarry inspections for a range of different sites. In the later years, I was dealing with HSE policy and liaison with the quarrying industry, sitting on a number of specialist industry committees and providing the secretariat for the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee. I was responsible for providing the discussion papers that lead to most of the guidance in QNJAC's legislation section."

Alongside Bush's current role for the BAA, he is also a joint director for MinExp and MinTrain.

Honorary Fellowships are determined by the IQ Board of Trustees in recognition of distinguished service in the quarrying and mineral products industry.

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