Blocks of marble, granite and stone: extraction and transport operations

All natural stones come from a long sedimentation process that has very ancient origins, even millions of years old, and are extracted from quarries located in the most diverse areas of the world.

Extraction is the first step of a long journey. In this phase the “bank”, i.e. the portion of material from which to obtain the blocks, is physically detached from the mountain.

The methods for extracting the stone from the quarries over time have been the most diverse and to date the most widespread method involves the use of diamond saws.
The banks are lifted and overturned with means such as bulldozers or bulldozers on a “fall bed” previously prepared to cushion the impact. In this phase, the quality of the material is carefully checked to prevent any defects, both aesthetic and structural, from being discovered in a more advanced stage of processing (frequently when the blocks are cut into slabs).

At this point we move on to the next phase or the transport: the blocks from the quarry are positioned by crane on heavy vehicles towards their destination.

A large part of the transport is carried out by ship: the blocks are transported to the port and here, through an overhead crane, loaded onto the ships: the transport can generally take place in the “hold” (bulk) where the blocks are fixed to the anchor chains or in 20′, 30′ or 40′ containers.

Once they arrive at the port of destination, the ships are emptied, the blocks placed on the ground and often transported to support logistics warehouses to then be reloaded on trucks to their destination.
Our blocks take different paths from each other.

The blocks of Indian quartzite are transported from the quarries to the Indian ports of Mundra or Chennai, embarked on ships to the Italian ports of Marina di Carrara or Venice and then loaded on trucks to our warehouse in Verona.

The Vratza, coming from Bulgaria, arrives in Italy by road via trucks.
The Fossena Stone, coming from Tunisia, is transported by truck to a Tunisian port and then loaded in the hold on ships bound for an Italian port such as that of La Spezia.
Also in this case the blocks are reloaded on trucks up to our veronese depot.

The Sardinian granites are embarked from a Sardinian port on a ferry that takes them to “mainland” Italy: subsequently, from this port, a truck will take them to their destination.

Many other natural materials purchased by us travel mainly by road: unfortunately the Italian railway network is not equipped for the transport of stone blocks, which have adequate overall dimensions and weight for transport by train, and which would allow us discrete advantages in terms of costs and times as well as lightening road traffic.

If you need more information about marble, granite or stone, contact us by phone or write to us by filling out the form below.