Quarrying

The raw materials are usually extracted using different open-pit types and techniques depending upon the local topography.

The quarrying operations differ depending upon whether the materials are used for cement production or whether aggregates are used for concrete production.

•    HILLSIDE QUARRY (cement)

Hillside quarries are located across a mountain slope or a hill slope. Mining works are typically performed through high walls interrupted by flat benches. Access roads and ramps allow to access the area where the material is dug out. The quarries may sometimes appear as a long, gentle slope if the original morphology permits it.

Example of a bench-face quarry

Example of a single-face quarry

Roaschia (CN)		Alonte (VI)

 

 

•    TERRAIN QUARRY (cement)

Known as open-pits, these quarries are excavated below the ground surface level.

Example of open-pit quarry (being excavated)

Augusta (SR)		Guidonia (RM)

 

 

Open-pit quarry that has been rehabilitated

Augusta (SR)		Tivoli (RM)

 

•    EXTRACTION OF AGGREGATES AND MATERIALS (SAND AND GRAVEL) FOR CONCRETE PRODUCTION

These materials may be extracted both from hillside quarries or open-pit quarries in alluvial material, which may be filled up with water and form shallow or deep lakes and thereinafter reclaimed into nature sites. They could also simulate a natural surface depressions within the original landscape reclaimed for agricultural purposes.

        

Ceretto (TO)		Sant'Albano Stura (CN)
Quarrying in a deep lake		Quarrying activities created a shallow lake with submerged aquatic vegetation

 

 

Planning the quarrying activities

The site identification, the choice of technology, the extraction methods and the reclamation plans are all coordinated in order to:
•  Make the best use of a resource, and avoid opening new mining sites nearby;
•  Ensure that all the quarrying operations are environmentally compatible;
•  Perform the most appropriate excavation methods and employ the best mobile equipment that facilitate subsequent reclamation activities;
•  Plan the quarrying operations in different lots so that reclamation activities can be carried out at the same time as the site is being actively exploited