Where does marble come from? How limestone turns into marble. Where does marble come from?

We have all seen monuments made of marble, the stone on the statue is white and smooth, and on the pedestal it is rough and made of stone of different colors. There are many types of marble, and there are even more ways to process it.

Where does marble come from?

Marble is mined in the mountains. If a beautiful rock without cracks is found, it is cut into blocks or slabs. The quarries are located high in the mountains. Stonemasons use steel saws to cut the rock into huge blocks and lower them down (on ropes), placing the logs under the sled. On a mountain road, a crane places the blocks on a powerful truck, and they are transported to a stone-cutting workshop, where they are cut into slabs.

Sculpture

The most beautiful blocks of marble are handed over to sculptors, who trim them: they carefully hit special chisels with a hammer, removing all excess and turning the stone into a statue. The most famous marble for sculptures is mined in Italy, in Carrara.

Plate

Marble layers are polished and washed for a long time until they begin to shine like a mirror. Such slabs are used to cover stairs, floors, and walls of palaces. The rocks contain small inclusions of semi-precious stones such as agate and onyx. They are very beautiful, with an interesting pattern, so they are used to make different figures. Such souvenirs are not cheap.

Marble tombstones, along with granite, are among the most popular among customers. They are really very beautiful, which is determined by the high decorative properties of the material itself. This stone is a magnificent work of nature. It has a variety of colors, wonderful texture, and high plasticity. Stone carving artists always willingly and fruitfully work with marble, making various steles from it, creating beautiful bas-reliefs and statues.

Where does the material come from?

Manufacturers purchase marble of both domestic and imported origin.

It is quite difficult to buy a foreign rock suitable for making tombstones, although in principle imported stone is widely represented on the market.

A lot of stones of unusual colors are brought from Italy, India, China, and Greece. Such marble is most often supplied in slabs 2 - 3 cm thick. Such blanks can be used in construction industry. For example, they can be intended for cladding walls and floors. But they cannot be made into a monument.

If someone really needs to make a tombstone stele from these thin slabs, then they have to resort to “splicing” them in order to achieve the required thickness of the slab. Of course, it is possible to organize the supply of non-standard stone blanks to order, and this is sometimes practiced. But the cost of such material, of course, turns out to be more expensive.

Marble monuments in Russia

More often than not, they are made from domestic minerals, which are at least two times (or even 10 times) cheaper than imported ones. In Russia there are several deposits where different types of marble are mined:

Ufaleysky - gray with white streaks.

Polevskoy - light gray with white streaks

Koelginsky is the whitest, therefore the most favorite material for ritual products. The word “marble” is associated with it.

You can order marble blocks from a domestic mining company such a thickness that is most preferable for production (usually 8 and 10 cm). In addition, it is possible to purchase pieces of rock of certain sizes to create sculptural compositions.

HOW IS THE PRICE OF A MARBLE TOMBSTONE?

Most often, in order to facilitate their own efforts and reduce the time required to manufacture goods, private workshops immediately order marble blanks for monuments.

They are inexpensive. As a result, a set for a memorial, consisting of a stele 80 cm high, a pedestal and a flower bed, will cost a small wholesale buyer about 2,200 - 3,200 rubles (if the order is made from the manufacturer). Subsequently, the workshops add 100% to the cost, and all this will cost the retail buyer 5,000 - 7,000 rubles per stone without registration.

In Russia there are deposits of marble of different color shades, which gives customers the opportunity to choose. Most often they settle on attractive light options. Indeed, the white marble stele looks elegant. But we must understand that this stone is more susceptible to deterioration and decay, since it itself is much more porous than granite, which means that moisture, spores and plant seeds penetrate into it more easily.

Pigment and dirt spots quickly appear on light marble, and moss and lichen begin to grow. Even with regular professional care, such a monument gradually loses its original appearance.

KARELIAN GRANITE

Therefore, the most popular stone for making tombstones is Karelian granite - gabbro-diabase. Its deep mourning black color looks very appropriate in a cemetery and gives the grave a majestic appearance.

Even if you have never been to the city on the Neva, you have at least seen the beautiful St. Isaac's and Kazan Cathedrals, St. Michael's Castle and the Hermitage in photographs. Why did I name them specifically? Yes, everything is simple, it was marble mined in Ruskeala that was used in the decoration of these buildings. It covered St. Isaac's Cathedral, laid out the floors of the Kazan Cathedral, made the window sills of the Hermitage, framed the windows of the Marble Palace and the facade of the Mikhailovsky Castle. Also, the underground halls of the St. Petersburg metro stations “Primorskaya” and “Ladozhskaya” are decorated with Ruskeala marble.
Today, marble is no longer mined in Ruskeala, and the quarry itself has been turned into a tourist park.

The Ruskeala marble quarries are located 25 km north of the city of Sortavala, on the high bank of the rapids Tokhmajoki River (“mad, bad”), near the ancient village of Ruskeala. The name of the village probably comes from the local name of the Tokhmajoki River - Ruskolka (from the Karelian “ruskea” - brown, red, red), in which the water is always brown, dark red due to iron compounds dissolved in it.
With the coming to power of Catherine II in Russia, a large-scale search for natural stone began for the construction of St. Petersburg. The stone was also searched for in the Vyborg province, including in the area of ​​Serdobol and Ruskeala. In August 1765, stone apprentice Andrei Pilyugin came to Ruskeala to inspect marble deposits from St. Petersburg.
On August 9, 1766, experimental marble mining began in Ruskeala, which showed good prospects Place of Birth. In September 1767, mining inspectors came to Ruskeala from the capital - Guard Captain Kozhin and Colonel Ivan Vasilyevich Zverev. They inspected the field and compiled a report on the work done. As a result, on January 19, 1768, Empress Catherine II signed a Senate decree to begin the development of marble in Ruskeala for the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Master stonemasons and their families came to the banks of the Ruskolka River from the Urals - this is how the working village of Ruskeala arose.

Since 1769, the Ruskeala marble scrappers were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Commission for the Construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Mining operations were initially supervised by Italian craftsmen. The main extraction of marble was carried out on Mount Belaya, named after the color of the marble that composes it: light gray, bluish-gray in color, with thin white and gray veins.
In the 1770-1780s, Ruskeala marbles were widely used by the architect Antonio Rinaldi to decorate the Marble Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral (in St. Petersburg), triumphal columns in honor of Russian weapons and the Counts Orlovs (in Tsarskoe Selo and Gatchina). It is noteworthy that at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the lands of Ruskeala belonged to Countess Anna Alekseevna Orlova-Chesmenskaya.

In the 1790s, when the Ruskeala quarries were practically inactive, the architect V. Brenna used local marble to decorate the Mikhailovsky Castle, the monument to Peter I, the obelisk “Rumyantsev’s Victories” in the capital and the Eagle Pavilion in Gatchina.

Since 1819, the extraction of marble was resumed in Ruskeala to decorate the new St. Isaac's Cathedral, which had been built for 40 years according to the design of the architect Auguste Ricard Montferrand.

From 1898 to 1939, the Ruskeala deposit was intensively developed for lime, decorative chips, crushed stone and facing blocks joint stock company"Ruskeala marble"

After the war, in the autumn of 1944, the restoration of the Ruskeala lime plant and marble quarries began.

The development of marble from the Ruskeala deposit at the Ruskeala-1 site ended in the late 1980s.

In 2005, the Ruskeala Mountain Park was formed, which is a unique man-made, natural and landscape tourism site.

Today, Ruskeala Park is perhaps one of the most visited places by tourists in Karelia.
Here you can just walk and admire the natural beauty, you can tickle your nerves by walking along a stretched rope bridge, flying over the canyon or jumping from a 20-meter height. Diving enthusiasts can dive to the bottom of the quarry.
But in my opinion, the best thing you can do here is take a boat and take a leisurely ride, looking at the patterns on the marble walls and swimming into small grottoes. The main thing to remember is that swimming and jumping into the water from boats is strictly prohibited.

If you are planning to come to the park, do not forget comfortable, flat shoes and mosquito repellent (if you come here in the warm season), because... the ever-hungry Karelian mosquitoes are included in the park visit program)). And of course, I would advise coming here on weekdays, because on weekends in good weather it’s like being in the Moscow metro at rush hour. Even on a weekday we waited an hour and a half for the boat to be free, because... There are few boats, but there are many people who want it.

Do you want to know what the capital is spending billions on? I returned from another trip to the Urals, where I filmed the 1500th production in my life. In addition to industrial photographs, dirty clothes and dusty cameras, I brought with me a terrible secret.

58 photos

Photos and text by Dmitry Chistoprudov

1. Bashkiria. Quiet and picturesque places of the Southern Urals. In the villages, potatoes, river fish and fresh kumiss are sold for free. Beauty! But if you turn off the road onto some dusty dirt road, you will definitely find yourself in some kind of production, open-pit mine or quarry.

The Urals are a treasury of various minerals. Back in school, during geography lessons, we were told that the Ural mountain system is one of the most ancient, formed 200-400 million years ago. Of the 55 types of important minerals that were developed in the USSR, 48 are represented in the Urals.

2. Meet - this is granite. Igneous rock. Granite is one of the densest, hardest and most durable rocks on earth. It is widely used in construction as a facing and road material.

3. Mansurovskoe deposit is the largest in the country for the extraction of block stone. Mansurovsky granite is mined in a single place, near the Bashkir city of Uchaly. This type of rock is considered one of the oldest granites in Russia and on the entire planet, estimating its geological age at 350 million years. According to geologists, the proven reserves of the field will last for another 200 years.

4. The lightest of all Russian granites are mined here. For its soft wavy texture and milky light gray color, Mansurovsky granite is often compared to marble; it is not for nothing that it has conquered the international space and is considered one of the most popular “made in Russia” granites abroad.

It is this granite that is now being laid throughout Moscow and in particular on Tverskaya Street. 90% of the tiles, borders and paving stones that the city now purchases come from the Urals (the rest from Karelia). Five Ural mining quarries (Mansurovsky is the largest) and more than 30 stone cutting enterprises are working to supply granite for the “My Street” reconstruction program.

5. The method of extracting granite blocks differs from the types I am used to in iron ore, limestone quarries or coal mines. If in the latter the minerals are hollowed out, crushed and crushed, then here everything is the other way around. The geological features of the rock’s occurrence allow it to be mined in fairly large blocks, which are convenient to work with in the future. This explains the relatively low cost of such a beautiful and high-quality material, although, of course, the concrete casting technology is cheaper.

6. The more a block can be chipped, the more it is worth. But not everything is as easy as it seems. It is not for nothing that granite is one of the most durable rocks. The average density of the rock is 2600 kg/m3. To break off such an even piece, you need to try hard.

7. The process of mining granite is similar to the process of eating truffle cake layer by layer. Granite occurs in layers. A part of the rock is separated from the massif, which is then divided into smaller blocks.

8. There are several methods for cutting pieces of the “cake”. One of them is large gas burners. Granite contains quartz, which peels off and flies off when exposed to temperature. Thus, the burner gradually cuts through the granite. The more quartz in granite, the larger the grains, and the faster the rock is cut. This method makes a cross-section of the piece.

10. A special chemical solution is poured into the drilled holes, which creates a “soft explosion”. Inside the tight hole, the mixture expands, splitting and moving the granite block.

12. All workers are local (albeit tanned).
- Guys, let me take a photo of you now. Can you somehow hit with sledgehammers at the same time?
- Listen, let’s give you a sledgehammer and take everything off ourselves?

13. Gradually driving a series of wedges, the rock cracks and voila, new block separated

14. There is another method - rope sawing. It is used in the Yuzhno-Sultaevsky quarry. The bottom line is that instead of gas burners, a cunning rope cutter is used.

15. The rope is passed through the drilled holes. Gradually the installation moves away along the guides, and in a few hours a huge piece is cut out.

20. Finished blocks are transported by loaders or dump trucks to the sawing shop of the quarry. Or they are sold as is to other sawmills.

22. Until recently, the entire stone mining industry was in a deplorable state. Due to the crisis, the demand of other cities for granite products has fallen. On the other hand, private owners began to look more and more towards Russian stone. The exchange rate has changed, and Chinese granite has risen in price sharply.

This is what a standard workshop for the production of granite borders and tiles looked like two years ago.

23. After the launch of the “My Street” program, Ural enterprises began to come to life. If before the Moscow order the Mansurovsky quarry produced about 3,000 cubic meters of granite per month, now this figure is twice as much.

24. New equipment was purchased with the first money from orders and new workshops were built. The large order volume breathed life into the entire industry. Related enterprises producing packaging, wire rod, wood, fuels and lubricants, various equipment, etc. have also stepped up. The equipment, however, was purchased entirely imported (except for dump trucks and cranes). This is what import substitution is, however.

26. Things have improved for mining companies. The money earned could simply be eaten away or stolen, but as we see, production is being developed and equipment is being updated.

27. While marble slabs are cut in one go, granite takes a very long time to cut. The saw blade moves back and forth across the slab, lowering only 1 cm at a time. Large pieces of granite take hours to saw.

28. Massive blocks are sawn into slabs, smaller blocks are cut into borders. Every little thing, such as paving stones, does not require large preparations and is sawn (or split) from scraps of slabs.

30. To speed up the cutting process, there are such large and cunning rope machines.

31. On such machines it is possible to saw slabs into 10 blocks with a height of more than two meters.

34. The cut quality is perfect.

35. An Italian master supervises the setup of the equipment.

36. To prevent passers-by from slipping on the tiles in winter, the surface is heat treated.

37. The tile becomes rough and not as slippery as polished granite.

38. New workshop, and finished products of the quarry. This curb stone is already being laid on Tverskaya Street. Over 3 kilometers of straight side and 500 meters of radial side were ordered for it.

39. These borders and tiles are 350 million years old, wait a minute!

41. Split paving stones.

42. To deliver tiles and curbs to Tverskaya, 364 trucks were needed, which brought 7,271 tons of granite - this is an area of ​​33.5 thousand square meters.

By weight, it’s like spreading thirty Boeing 747s along Tverskaya.

43. In total, this year Moscow ordered 47,500 tons of granite products. This is 2,374 trucks or 220,000 sq.m. of coverage. What is comparable to area 30 football fields! This is about the question that Muscovites are greedy. In a sense, this is certainly true, the capital is the richest city in the country, but the money for its renovation goes to the regions where production is increasing.

In terms of the cost of its extraction, processing and delivery, granite is inferior to similar concrete products. But there are also advantages:

Granite has low water absorption and high resistance to frost and dirt. Concrete absorbs moisture better.
- concrete is abrasive, it generates more dust than granite.
- concrete slabs are produced in a factory, but granite is produced by nature itself.

44. Each quarry has its own texture and shade of granite. If you look at the pattern of laying tiles on the streets of Moscow, you can see a certain pattern in the pattern. Tiles of different colors came from different quarries.

45. The Tashmurun quarry produces darker granite than the Mansurovsky one. The quarry itself is smaller in size.

48. Kambulatovsky quarry.

50. This quarry ranks first in terms of efficiency in extracting cubic meters of product per worker.

51. Yuzhno-Sultaevsky quarry with large beautiful cranes.

53. In general, I have everything. I would just like to clarify that if you choose granite instead of concrete, this does not mean that everything will automatically be fine. Nothing like this. Without the right installation technology, anything will fall apart. If you make a backing from shit and branches, then after the first winter the sidewalk/steps/curbs will float and burst from uneven load.

55. It’s not enough to buy a granite border; you also need to install it correctly. This curb, albeit crookedly, was installed 10 years ago.

56. And this is his age, a concrete curb.

57. This is what it is, granite. Meet on the streets of Moscow, Novosibirsk, Salekhard, Tyumen, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Astana, Baku and so on on the list.

58. So when you walk along Tverskaya or any other reconstructed street, remember that you are touching history that is 350 million years old!

Also see “Nazarovo coal mine. Mad Max could be filmed here

“, I am publishing a report from designer Harry Daniell.

He has his own company and his work can be seen in different parts of the world, not just in New York, where his main office is located.

I must admit, it was quite interesting when I entered the underground marble quarry.

The same entrances and exits have been used here since the marble quarry began to be developed. I can’t even imagine how many square meters were mined and removed from the quarry.

But, according to workers, the productivity of this marble quarry is more than 4000 square meters finished slabs (slabs) per day.

So we entered... and did a long way walking along a not very clean “road” to the place where they should show us how a marble block breaks off.

To be honest, I expected to see a completely different picture. I thought that part of the marble wall would be torn off and a lot of debris would fly and there would be a lot of dust.

But as it turned out, everything was quite simple and the entire process was managed by only three employees of the marble quarry.

We were all frozen in anticipation...

One of the workers controlled a huge excavator and directed the bucket into the crack between the marble block and the main rock, the second controlled the process and gave instructions so that everything went perfectly, and the third was in the excavator cabin and, on command, moved the marble block in the right direction

After the excavator moved the block of marble with its huge fingers until critical point, then it quietly and carefully fell onto the prepared pile of quarry debris with minimal damage to the stone.

Each block in a marble quarry is marked with certain symbols so that you know where it came from.

Since the pattern can be very different, and in some places it can be darker, somewhere lighter, such marks help in the future to navigate and sort marble by color, grain size and other parameters

Here, with the help of diamond saws, the chipped blocks from the marble wall are sawn into smaller blocks.

After that stone blocks are transported to another part of the marble quarry, where there are strip machines that cut them into slabs.

On this machine, using diamond saws (strips), slabs (slabs) of a certain thickness are cut.

As a rule, their standard thickness is 20 and 30 millimeters.

From here the slabs are moved to the next zone of the marble quarry...

In this area, the slabs are passed through a conveyor polishing machine, where the slab goes through the entire sanding process and is then polished to a high shine.

Next, the slabs are placed in storage areas of the marble quarry. From where they are already sent to the warehouse of stone processing companies or directly to the facility, where they will be used to produce marble products.

I have become more picky now and will now look at and select specific slabs in stock before deciding on marble for my projects.

The fact is that natural marble is heterogeneous and can vary greatly depending on the location of the marble quarry from which it was taken. It may be more striped, different in grain, color and pattern, so it is important to choose a slab that perfectly matches the design project.

I really enjoyed the tour of the largest underground marble quarry in the world, I learned a lot about stone and if you have the opportunity, be sure to visit this quarry.

See you later, Harry Daniel

This is the report that came out.

By the way, it is possible that Fabio Viale picked up a 5-ton marble block from just such a quarry to make the only one in the world “ “

This is how marble is mined in an open quarry.

And now I suggest you watch a video about how marble is mined in an open pit in Italy.

Usually booty videos are not very interesting to watch, but this movie is very well done.