January 20, 2025 - In this post, we will talk about stones mined in Türkiye as far as overall stats and try to give some numbers. Travertine: Türkiye holds the largest known reserves in the world by approximately half of the world’s total sources, and it is the global leader in Travertine production with an estimated 1.2 million tons each year or more. This...

January 19, 2025 - Granite is a very strong and durable stone. As mentioned in Part 1 of our granite introduction, its compressive strength can easily be around 200 MPa or even more, which is far above common grade concrete of 20 - 40 MPa. In addition to its strength, granite is very hard and dense, which makes it very durable, which means its...

January 19, 2025 - Extraction: Many principles that we mentioned in earlier posts while introducing Marble and Travertine mining also apply here. Common methods of granite extraction can be listed as wire sawing, drilling, blasting, jet cutting, where the former is the most common. After initial cutting/loosening, the large blocks are removed by wedges, shims, which are then reduced to more manageable, smaller size...

January 19, 2025 - Granite is a coarse grained igneous rock which forms as a result of slow cooling of magma in great depths, which allows formation of large, visible interlocking crystals which gives its speckled appearance. Granite come in various colors including but not limited to white, pink, gray, brown, red, which depends on its mineral composition. Three main minerals that make up...

January 19, 2025 - This method is generally used when stone deposits lie close to ground surface and in layers. Although it is mostly for coal extraction, other types of stones can also be mined with this method. Strip mining is basically stripping large areas of soil and rock above the desired stone layer. Explosives may also be used for loosening the overlying rock...

December 15, 2024 - In the previous post, we talked about what marble is, how it is formed and where it is found. Now let’s discuss how it is extracted and processed. Extraction (Quarrying) of Marble: The main important factors to consider when selecting a marble quarry are the accessibility of the marble from the crust, its quality and color and other environmental factors....

December 15, 2024 - Rocks can basically be classified as igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Marble is a metamorphic rock. The main ingredient in marble is Calcium Carbonate (CaCO₃), which is similar to limestone - a sedimentary rock, but the difference here is that marble has gone through a much longer period of formation under pressure, heat and chemical effects which causes recrystallization of minerals...

December 3, 2024 - Travetine is durable and versatile stone which is used since ancient times. Even the Colosseum in Rome, which stood the test of time since 2000 years, is mainly made of travertine because of its strength, durability and aesthetics. It can be used both indoors or outdoors on any surfaces and can also be sculpted to various shapes. Specific uses include...

December 3, 2024 - Extraction of Travertine: Travertine is generally found on or very close to ground surface, therefore it is commonly extracted by excavating open-pits. After locating the proper source and performing environmental impact studies, and obtaining official permissions, first the top soil is removed. The stone layers are examined by methods such as obtaining rock samples, core drills or visual observation, Ground...

December 3, 2024 - This is the first part of a series of posts that we make about travertine stone, a commonly extracted stone in Turkiye, which the country has over half reserves of the world. In this part, part 1, we introduce travertine and describe what it is, how it is formed, where it can be found. The next post, Part 2, discusses...

October 5, 2024 - In the second part of our stone mining methods series, let's briefly describe underground mining techniques. This method is basically used when the stones to be mined are located deep within the surface. In order to access these depths, opening pits would be very costly and would mean disturbing too much of the surface, therefore tunnels are dug instead. Therefore...

October 5, 2024 - Stone can be mined in a variety of ways. The method of stone extraction depends on available technology and resources, geographic location, stone type, and the intended use of the extracted stone. We may however, separate the methods mainly into two as, surface and underground mining. In this series of posts, we will discuss various stone mining methods which will...

January 16, 2024 - Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing! Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing! Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!