Marble Extraction Research Articles

Managing Marble Quarry Waste: Opportunities and Challenges for Circular Economy Implementation

Marble has been a prominent natural stone exploited since ancient times, commonly employed as a building material and ornamental stone. However, the disposal of waste generated from marble extraction, particularly fine sludge, poses significant environmental challenges for the dimensional stone industry. The difficulty in managing and recovering these materials, exacerbated by local regulations and the absence of suitable recovery protocols, often leads to landfilling. This issue is exemplified by the Carrara Marble Basin in the Apuan Alps (Tuscany, Italy), where more than half of the extracted marble remains as quarry waste or debris. Modern cutting technologies have intensified the production of finer materials and sawing residue, known as “marmettola”, ranging in size from fine sand to silt. The disposal of these materials, commonly through landfilling or abandonment, has profound environmental repercussions. This research primarily aimed to carry out a preliminary physical, mineralogical, and morphological characterization of the fine waste and sludges generated from Carrara Marble exploitation. The findings reveal the high granulometric uniformity of the materials, and a nearly pure carbonate composition, suggesting potential for reuse in various industrial sectors such as paper, plastics, and pharmaceuticals production.

Beyond the Whiteness

Saverio Salvioni, Cava di Ravaccione, 1810–1813 (Source: Archivio di Stato Massa e Pontremoli) Marble extraction in the Italian Apuan Alps has been known since Roman times, and its historical importance is symbolized by masterpieces of Western art history. However, the Carrara marble industry has recently received harsh criticism for operating in the protected area of the Apuan Alps Regional Park, recognized by UNESCO since 2015. Environmental and social concerns about mining have arisen from the extreme acceleration of all the productive phases of the extractive industry. From the mid-twentieth century, the exploitation of geological deposits of marble grew exponentially thanks to the development of powerful extraction technologies and a global export economy that creates only relatively few occupations in Carrara. Within this context, photographic and cinematographic projects have increasingly focused on the environmental risks created by the marble mining industry. This article shows how visual representations of Carrara have changed in recent years via an analysis of three case studies: the internationally acclaimed documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018), the climbing project and Italian short film Carie (Cavity 2019), and Lorenzo Shoubridge’s naturalistic photographs in Apuane: terre selvagge (Apuan Wildlands 2018). These case studies offer an innovative perspective on the landscapes of marble extraction. Previously, these landscapes were represented following other visual trends emphasizing the technological sublime found in the geometric shapes of the white quarries, the working conditions of marble laborers, and the myth of the purity of marble used in artistic sculptures. The three examples analyzed in this paper attempt to go ‘beyond the whiteness’ by focusing on the scale of environmental destruction (Anthropocene: The Human Epoch), the more-thanhuman perspective (Apuane terre selvagge), and the social struggle for preserving a mountain region through creative solutions (Carie). In other words, new aesthetic and ethical sensibilities are challenging established twentieth-century narratives of the Carrara marble quarries by focusing on a new element: the environment.

A simplified method for the indirect evaluation of the “embodied pollution” of natural stones (marble) working chain to be applied for achieving the Ecolabel brand of the product

The constant push toward higher energy and environmental quality buildings makes the acquisition of excellence marks for products and materials, of which the building envelope is constituted, increasingly urgent. The recent European (EU) Commission Decision 2021/476 is applicable to marble used in construction. It sets out criteria that companies producing marble have to accomplish to obtain the EU Ecolabel brand. Unfortunately, some criteria such as, for example, those that refer to the application of the Environmental Management System, ISO 14001 and EMAS certifications, or those that concern the ISO 14067 as well as the Product Environment Footprint procedure, are difficult to apply for companies in the marble extraction and processing sector. These companies, in fact, are usually family-run and find it difficult to adhere to such complex schemes. This difficulty obviously limits the number of companies and products that can aspire to an environmental excellence label.

Critical Analysis of Multi Sectoral Policies related to Marble Industry in Pakistan

Incentive Based (IB) and Command and Control (CAC) instruments are identified in various legislative Acts and Policy documents based on the criteria of environmental economics. Despite the advantages of IB strategies the world of policy making is somewhat locked into the path of traditional approaches such as CAC and pose inertia to move forward in environmental policy making. An ethical shift is inevitable anywhere where there is a market failure and increased social costs and inefficiencies in government interventions to regulate the market. Regulations are discrete steps to address feedbacks in a complex system. Policy evaluation and testing criteria is used to evaluate and test the policies regulating marble extraction and processing in Pakistan. A set of policy and regulatory instruments are selected to be critiqued. The coexisting policy approaches found in the study shall be tested on system dynamics model for developing insights and long-term implications.

A New RFID-Identification Strategy Applied to the Marble Extraction Industry

This paper aims to improve the marble industry production chain by proposing new technological approaches using the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems. The dynamic capabilities of the RFID read-write tags allow the storage of physical characteristics of stone blocks, according to electrical, ultrasound and three-dimensional image characterization tests. These characterization non-destructive tests allow the evaluation of important parameters of the original stone blocks, by analyzing the internal structure of the rocks. Then, these parameters can be stored in databases through RFID-tags, in order to optimize their subsequent cutting and transformation processes. RFID identification technology when integrated into an ethernet communication network enables automatic communication with cutting and processing equipment, building an intelligent industrial platform, integrating PCs (Personal Computers) and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) within an Industry 4.0 environment. Another huge advantage of RFID technology is that it allows full product traceability, namely by enabling the end consumer to reverse the production path. A laboratory prototype was implemented and a detailed analysis and discussion of the obtained functionalities is shown at the end of this paper.

Multitemporal Terrestrial Laser Scanning for Marble Extraction Assessment in an Underground Quarry of the Apuan Alps (Italy).

This article focuses on the use of Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) for change detection analysis of multitemporal point clouds datasets. Two topographic surveys were carried out during the years 2016 and 2017 in an underground marble quarry of the Apuan Alps (Italy) combining TLS with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Total Station (TS) studies. Multitemporal 3D point clouds were processed and compared with the aim of identifying areas subjected to significant material extraction. Point clouds representing changed areas were converted into triangular meshes in order to compute the volume of extracted material over one year of quarrying activities. General purpose of this work is to show a valid method to examine the morphological changes due to raw material extraction with the focus of highlighting benefits, accuracies and drawbacks. The purpose of the executed survey was that of supporting the planning of quarrying activities in respect of regional rules, safety and commercial reasons.

Quarrying the coasts of Crete in antiquity; some geoarchaeological considerations

The paper discusses three aspects of coastal quarrying in the island of Crete, Aegean Sea, Greece; issues of chronology in regard to the Mean Sea Level in antiquity, issues of ancient technology, and issues of local marble extraction. A series of violent seismic events, the most known being the so-called Early Byzantine Tectonic Paroxysm, affected the morphology of the coastline of Crete, the coastal quarries of which are today either uplifted or sunken. Quarries of aeolianite/sandstone, limestone, marble, and beach rock are related to adjacent rock-cut fish tanks and ship sheds. Traces of the ancient exploitation such as the circular holes observed in the coastal quarries are differentiated according to their dimensions and their natural or manmade form. A preliminary report of a new site, a white marble quarry at Istron (Gulf of Merambello, eastern Crete), is added to the white marble quarries of the area and correlated with the graffiti inscribed on the islet of Prasonēsi or Vryonēsi.

OPEN PIT MINE 3D MAPPING BY TLS AND DIGITAL PHOTOGRAMMETRY: 3D MODEL UPDATE THANKS TO A SLAM BASED APPROACH

Abstract. The state of the art of 3D surveying technologies, if correctly applied, allows to obtain 3D coloured models of large open pit mines using different technologies as terrestrial laser scanner (TLS), with images, combined with UAV based digital photogrammetry. GNSS and/or total station are also currently used to geo reference the model. The University of Brescia has been realised a project to map in 3D an open pit mine located in Botticino, a famous location of marble extraction close to Brescia in North Italy. Terrestrial Laser Scanner 3D point clouds combined with RGB images and digital photogrammetry from UAV have been used to map a large part of the cave. By rigorous and well know procedures a 3D point cloud and mesh model have been obtained using an easy and rigorous approach. After the description of the combined mapping process, the paper describes the innovative process proposed for the daily/weekly update of the model itself. To realize this task a SLAM technology approach is described, using an innovative approach based on an innovative instrument capable to run an automatic localization process and real time on the field change detection analysis.

EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL MODELLING OF WASTE PRODUCED BY THE MARBLE INDUSTRY OF TEPEXI DE RODRÍGUEZ

Tepexi de Rodriguez is one of the municipalities with the highest rate of extreme poverty in Mexico. The agriculture and the marble extraction industry are the major sources of employment. This region has more than 15 processing factories of marble, where poor safety conditions of work, low salaries and pollution are common denominator. The marble residues deposit in the ground without control, deteriorate the vegetation, causes desertification and affect the health of the population. Actually, there aren´t researches about the amount of waste generated by this industry in Tepexi. The objective of this work was analyze theoretically through statistical formulas the amount of waste generate in the marble transformation and compare to the real residues obtain in a field test. The results show that 87% of the raw material is discarded, generate more than 60,000 cubic meters of waste per year. With this results, can be proposed that the blocks will be standardize, optimizing the raw material by 25% or more, decreasing the amount of residues and advantage the development of industry with a sustainable approach. Keyword: Waste reduction, pollution, sustainable development, marble industry

Petrography, geochemistry, and cathodoluminescence of ancient white marble from quarries in the southern Phrygia and northern Caria regions of Turkey: Considerations on provenance discrimination

Marble quarries exploited in antiquity of the Denizli and Karacasu Basins (Turkey) were characterized by their petrography, carbon and oxygen isotopes, and cathodoluminescence. This study is an useful contribution for provenance studies of archeological artifacts composed of unknown marble. Marble quarries from the Hierapolis, Laodikeia, and Aphrodisias territories were considered; they constitute a homogeneous group of marble extraction districts. Collectively, they were among the most important sites for marble exploitation throughout antiquity from southwestern Anatolia, where only Afyon and Ephesus, which have already been studied extensively, were more important. In spite of that, the exportation of these marbles in ancient times has not yet been demonstrated. This is partially because their identification has never been fully addressed scientifically.Petrography, isotopes, and cathodoluminescence techniques used together are effective in discriminating among the study marbles. This could facilitate the determination of the provenance of these marbles in local monuments and artifacts. However, it could be difficult to determine the marble provenances in cases where a larger set of possible provenances should be taken into consideration.

Use of Digital Terrestrial Photogrammetry in rocky slope stability analysis by Distinct Elements Numerical Methods

Current approaches to rocky slope stability analysis require knowledge of the geometrical–structural setting, as well as the physical–mechanical properties of the intact material and its discontinuities. The physical–mechanical properties are derived from in situ and laboratory tests, whereas the geometrical characteristics come from field attitude measurements. Frequently, the inaccessibility of walls does not allow direct measurement of discontinuity surfaces by traditional geological methods. In such cases, data can only be obtained by statistical methods. Although this approach is significant and provides spatial meaning, it is ineffective for deterministic analysis. This paper provides a solution to this problem by applying digital terrestrial photogrammetric techniques employing a reamed bar, an aerostatic balloon and a helicopter. Results demonstrate that the accuracy and the quantity of geometrical and engineering–geological data coming from the photogrammetric survey, allow for numerical simulation of the relationship between rock elements as a function of their physical–mechanical properties and load conditions. The 3DEC code was chosen among the different methods available to model the discontinuous media through distinct elements. The proposed methodology was applied to a quarry located in the Carrara Marble District (the Apuan Alps, Italy), the largest and most exploited mining region in Europe. The economic value of the area required a detailed study of the presence of instability phenomena so that marble extraction could continue in safe conditions.

Characteristics Of The Marble Industry In Egypt: Structure, Conduct, And Performance

This paper analyzes marble extraction and production in Egypt from an applied industrial economics point of view. The marble industry in Egypt could be a promising sector if regulated properly. Market structure, conduct and performance is analyzed including degree of differentiation, nature of competition, barriers to entry, and needed regulations. Technically, production matches increasing returns of a Cobb Douglas form while cost structure follows declining average cost with entry . Factor inputs in production are non-complementary with $1000 of capital substitutable by 7.5 units of labor. Efficiency concerns necessitate deep technological segmentation with declining profitability. Critically needed regulations are related to technological use in extraction and labor allocation in production. For higher efficiency, the industry should become more capital intensive even though the Egyptian economy is undeniably labor abundant.

Assessment of the visual impact of marble quarry expansion (1984–2000) on the landscape of Thasos island, NE Greece

Marble extraction is an economically important and widespread activity in Greece that exists since historical times. The extraction takes place by open-pit quarries in hill slopes. The original landform is permanently altered and the original vegetation cover is destroyed. The visual impact of the quarries extends over larger areas as noticeable scars of high colour contrast, reducing the aesthetic appeal of the landscape and deteriorating the scenic quality of areas where tourism often is a major constituent of income. The aim of this work was to assess the ecological, landscape and visual impacts of marble quarries on the island of Thasos, NE Greece by employing remote sensing, geographical analysis and landscape metrics. Change detection and object-based classification were used to monitor the landscape dynamics (1984–2000) of marble quarries. A new index was defined to estimate the ‘cumulative visibility load’ on the landscape. An expansion trend of marble quarries was identified by the creation of new and the enlargement of existing quarries in the NE part of the island on areas previously covered by semi-natural pine forest. The visual impact increased by a factor of 2.52 and although the area of quarries was less than 1% of the landscape in 2000, it affected 13.5% of the island, including areas such as the island's capital and nearby coasts.

Introducing a new aspect in marble quarry rehabilitation in Greece

For many years the marble extraction sector of the Greek mining industry has been in conflict with the public, especially in terms of rehabilitation of marble quarry sites. One of the main reasons for that is that the marble extraction sector has been unable to adjust to the existing legislative guidelines for the rehabilitation, such as extensive backfilling and re-vegetation. In the majority of cases these methods fail due to erosion of the backfill soil and adverse climatic conditions. As a result the number of abandoned marble quarry sites is continuously increasing. The present paper suggests a different approach regarding the rehabilitation of marble quarries. More specifically, the paper questions the applicability, the effectiveness, and the social usefulness of the above-mentioned guidelines and suggests the establishment of new land-uses, which are based on an in-depth analysis of the area’s special features, by taking full advantage of its potentials. What is more, the rehabilitation scheme proposes that the new land-uses and the quarrying activity may co-exist and operate simultaneously for a long period of time.