It’s not everyday you get to see this! This is a Bench being dropped at the Calacatta Machia Veccia Quarry in Paonazzo, Italy. One of the great benefits of being a large marble yard is that we get to go to itally to search for the very best marble for our clients, On this last trip we were able to watch this amazing process!
The process of harvesting marble consists of separating portions of rock in shapes as regular as possible from the wall of the mountain (called the bench) through a complex series of phases that starts with drilling horizontal and vertical holes in the mountain with hydraulic or pneumatic perforating hammers. A cable called a diamond wire is inserted in the drilled holes. This wire is part of a diamond wire saw that cuts through the selected portion of mountain by making use of the abrasive effect of the cable on the wet stone. This phase, called “quarry bench cutting” can be carried out with the use of a chain saw (machine with a diamond saw blade) that can directly wet cut without the necessity of previously drilled holes. After cutting, the rock portion, called the bench, usually from 3 to 9 meters and an average thickness of about 3 meters, is separated from the mountain by an iron apparatus that acts as a wedge, and, with the vehicle’s push, is overturned on a bed of rubble previously prepared on the quarry floor. Really something to see it first hand!