What is Stone Quarrying?
Quarrying is the process of collecting stones from natural rock surfaces. Site selection and methods used for quarrying for construction works is presented today for a better understanding of the provenance.
Quarrying of stone is different from mining. Mining is an underground operation only whereas quarry is carried out on the exposed surface of natural rocks to the light of the sun. Stone quarrying process is generally done in the hilly areas where a large quantity of stone is available.
The stone industry is broadly classed as to the uses for which the stone is intended:
The quarry should be selected based on some conditions as follows.
Considerations for Quarrying Stones
After the site selection, some important considerations are to be followed before starting quarrying of stones. Which is as follows:
Methods of Quarrying Stones
Quarrying can be done by three methods as follows:
Quarrying Stones using Hand Tools
In case of soft stones or for smaller works, quarrying is done by using hand tools. There are various ways to quarry using hand tools and they are:
Excavating
Excavating is preferred in case of soft stone surfaces. Hammers, pickaxes, shovels are used to excavate the stones.
Heating
The top surface of the rock is heated by placing wood with fuel on it. The fire will be allowed for some hours and the top surface gets heated and separates from the rock. This separated portion is removed by pickaxes, crowbars, etc.
The stones obtained by heating will be in good shape if the rock formation contains horizontal layers at shallow depth. So, the stone obtained will be directly used for masonry works.
Wedging
This method is applicable when the rock contains cracks or joints in it. Steel wedges or steel points are put in these cracks or fissures and hit them with a hammer.
Then the rock portion separates from parent rock. If natural cracks are there, then artificial holes are drilled in the rock and wedging is done.
Machine Quarrying Stones
Machine quarrying is done by using channeling machines on the site. This type of machine is driven by steam, compressed air or electricity. A groove is made using this machine around the rock and the horizontal holes are drilled underneath the block. Hence, the block gets separated from its bed. A large groove of 25-meter length and 55 to 80 mm width and with a depth about 2 to 3.6 meter can be made using channeling machine. So, larger blocks of stones can be obtained using this method.
Blasting for Quarrying Stones
This method, explosives are used to exfoliate the stones from parent rock. This process is done in case of hard stone or hard rock which does not contain any fissures or cracks. The holes are drilled in the rock and explosives are arranged in the deep holes and blasted with proper safety measures. The stones obtained through this process are not larger. So, the main purpose of blasting is to obtain small stones which are used as ballast for railway works, aggregate in concrete works, etc.
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