The towns of Carrara in Italy and Marble in Colorado are worlds apart in both distance and culture. Separated 8850km, one is a Mediterranean port in the Tuscany region of north Italy, the other a rustic outpost of cabins and stores set amid ponderosa pines and quaking aspen in the high-altitude Rocky mountains. 

 

The similarities take shape in the geology of the surrounding mountainsides. Stone originating from Carrara and Marble has been immortalized in history's most iconic sculptures and monuments. 

 

Carrara marble is known as "stone of the masters" that Michelangelo carved into the statue of David and forms the Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome. Yule marble from Colorado Stone Quarries, Inc was selected for the Lincoln Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. 

 

Today, Colorado Stone Quarries is experiencing a renaissance ushered in by its parent company, Carrara based R.E.D. Graniti. For nearly 50 years, the latter has been a global leader in discovering, extracting and marketing premium stone, quarrying and block-processing facilities on four continents. 

 

It assumed the ownership of Colorado Stone Quarries in 2011 and holds all mineral rights to a 26 hectare section of the area known as Treasure Mountain. Within three years the company opened four  marble galleries. It employs a crew of 40 in its year-round operation and has a fleet of 30 machines that includes Volvo L350F, L330E, L120E and L90E wheel loaders, an ECR58 compact short swing radius excavator, EC340D and EC480D crawler excavators and an A35D articulated hauler. 

 

Stone is extracted with precision cuts - there is no blasting at any stage of the process. Two Volvo L350F wheel loaders are the mine workhorses clocking up 10 hours a day. 

 

Inside the portal, crews work on two levels. On the lower level, after the initial cuts are made, a Volvo EC340D or EC480D excavator slides deftly into place and uses its bucket teeth to coax the stones loose and gently flip them on to the gallery floor for load out by the L350F. Once the large blocks are removed, a Volvo L90E loader with pallet forks repositions the saw for the next round of cuts. On the second level, blocks are cleanly sliced from the face and extracted using the block forks on the L350F. 

 

Colorado Stone Quarries replaced the entire fleet of equipment when they purchased the mines. When the operations management reviewed bids, bottom line price was not the only factor taken into consideration. Total cost of ownership and dedicated dealer support influenced the decision to buy Volvo machines due to the heavy duty cycling work of the loaders and the remote location. 

 

The Power Equipment Company service technicians carry out preventive and routine maintenance on the Volvo units and other equipment, including the stone saws.

 

Once the marble blocks are selected and carved from the face, they are washed and trimmed to size. Each block is inspected and approved, then loaded on to flatbed semi-trucks and hauled to a logistics stockyard in Delta, Colorado. From there, the majority are sent by rail to Norfolk, Virginia and transferred to containers ready for shipping to Italy.

 

When the stone arrives in Carrara it is sold to companies specializing in the supply of cut-to-size material for projects all over the world. Other blocks are processed into sized slabs and sold to wholesalers who market it to end-customers. Fifty percent of Colorado marble is imported back into the USA and the rest is sold to other countries.