Which Materials Can Be Mined From a Quarry?
Most of us won’t have any direct experience of working in a quarry, but you can almost guarantee that we interact with items made from quarry products every day. A quarry is a type of large open-pit mine where natural stone and other materials can be extracted, and they produce a vast quantity of the world’s building materials.
Quarries have been used for thousands of years and they can be mined for a versatile range of materials used to build everything from houses to roads, dams, pavements and more. If you’d like to know more about the types of materials that can be extracted from a quarry, then read on for our brief guide.
Aggregates
The term aggregate covers several different materials used in building and construction, with common varieties including sand, gravel and crushed stone. Aggregates can be mixed with cement, lime or gypsum to form strong and durable concrete or mortar for building.
Marble
This variety of rock is often used as a luxury material for tabletops, floors or sculptures and it often takes several months of digging before the marble can be extracted. A quarry manager oversees each cut of the marble, as marble mined along the ‘vein’ of the deposit will have a very different look than marble that is ‘cross-cut’.
Granite
Granite is a coarse to medium-grained igneous rock which is also rich in quartz. Granite has a huge range of uses, making its quarrying a major industrial activity at one point in time. Nowadays, granite is used less frequently as a building stone material, but it’s still in very high demand for items such as tombstones.
Limestone
This sedimentary rock is made up mostly of calcium carbonate and has been studied for centuries due to its rich fossil content. Limestone is very versatile and can be used as a chemical additive for a wide range of applications, including cements, concretes, medicines and livestock feed.
Slate
Slate is a thin metamorphic rock that can be easily split into thinner sheets. Slate is highly durable and strong even with a relatively slim thickness, making it a popular choice for things such as roof tiles, flooring and flagging.
As you can see, quarry products have a wide variety of useful applications and there are many more materials that can be mined from quarries, as well as those listed above. If you’re looking for high-quality quarry products for your next building and construction project, get in touch with W M Thompson & Son. We’ve been the proud supplier of quarry materials for almost 70 years and offer a wide range of materials, including sand, stone, gravel and recycled aggregates. We’re also able to accommodate bespoke requests, so if you want to find out more about any of our quarry products or services, give us a call today or visit our website.
