08 Feb How is Granite Mined? Everything You Need to Know.
Granite carries quite distinctive and immense durability that makes it a prominent choice for many uses. Several monuments and countertops are just a few examples of how this enduring stone is used. Granite is the most intriguing of all kinds of natural stones made up of mainly quartz and feldspar. It takes millions of years to form deep inside the earth’s surface. It is an igneous rock formed by the cooling and solidification of magma (underground molten rock). As the magma cools down, it forms the large solid masses of stone called granite. It is then mined from depths of the earth and refined before serving as the highly sleek countertops or flooring found in your home.
How is Granite Mined Exactly?
Mining granite is a very large industrial process. The first step of making a granite slab is to mine the raw granite materials out of the crust of the earth in large, heavy blocks. Granite slabs are attained from specific sites that are known as quarries. Normally, miners choose quarries that are as close to the surface of the earth as possible.
The layers of earth above which the stones are formed are firstly removed to uncover the granite. After this, an open cast mining process is used to extract it from the earth. The process includes drilling holes through the rock and then using hydraulic hammers to detach the individual blocks of stone from their surroundings. Once the blocks are singled out, cranes are used to lift them to the surrounding surface.
Fabrication
After quarrying, the raw granite extracted in blocks weigh up to 10 tons each of which is transported by trucks to the processing facilities that cut the stone into slabs of granite for easier handling. These smaller blocks are then polished for the high gloss to make them smooth and bring out the natural colours and patterns of them. For polishing, these small slabs are run through a polishing machine having diamond polishing pads. These bring out the shine in the stone through each new layer of polishing leaving the granite with a smooth, yet natural finish.
Process after mining – What’s next?
Anyone who discovers about granite mining would obviously want to know how is granite processed. This section covers that query in brief. So, here we go.
Once the slabs are polished, they will then be transported to different countries before being off-loaded and taken to distributors in cities around the country. The final step involves measuring, cutting, and polishing again. This finished product is then transported to the buyer for the installation of their custom project.
After installation, these granite projects are polished once again using a portable polishing tool to remove any small scratches from the transportation process. Granite products have been formulated to abide by the life of the home. When looking at a granite countertop, it is hard to imagine the comprehensive and time-consuming process it has gone through before arriving in your home. From extraction, polishing, trucking, shipping, to receiving, measuring, cutting and installing that piece of stone. With such an efficient process of mining, the end product that is delivered to you is a beautiful granite masterpiece.
Eternal Stones Export, Udaipur (India) brings you different kinds of granites for your business as well as individual needs of different shapes and sizes. We export Absolute Black, Ocean Black, Kashmir White, and many more in flamed, polished, honed, leathered and many other forms as per your requirements. If you wish to import these stones, kindly contact us for more queries.
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