Process
Uses Of Rock
Yahara Materials rock has a variety of uses. There are those everybody thinks of – like roads, bridges and house foundations.
And there are many more that no one would ever guess – toilets, TVs and even toothpaste!
Stone quarrying is the multistage process by which rock is extracted from the ground and crushed to produce
aggregate, which is then screened into the sizes required for immediate use, or for further processing.
How a Quarry Works
- Using a large drill, a “test hole” is made, 50-to-100 feet deep
- By monitoring the speed of the drill, we can tell what kind of material – soil or rock – the drill is moving through
- The speed of the drill is so finely tuned it can even tell us what kind of rock – sandstone, limestone or granite – we’re drilling.
- Using “scrapers” and bulldozers, soil is removed to expose the rock.
- Anywhere from three to 20 feet of soil is scraped off.
- This soil – called “overburden” – is saved for reclamation, when the quarry site is restored to its natural state.
- Holes are drilled into the rock surface.
- These holes are drilled in a grid pattern.
- A blasting company fills the holes with explosives and blasts the grid.
- The rock is reduced to smaller pieces which are more easily processed. This material is called “shot rock”.
- The shot rock is fed into a machine called a “crusher”.
- This machine can be adjusted to crush the rock into whatever size is needed.
- Examples:
- Base Course Material – Rock And Sand, Used For Roads And Parking Lots
- Clear Material – Rock Without Sand, Used For Drainage And Concrete
- Screenings – Sand – Used For Bedding Material
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Did You Know….
- More than 50,000 tons of crushed stone is needed to build one mile of a four-lane highway!
- An average of 200 tons of crushed stone is used in the construction of a single home!
- Every person in the United States uses an average of 10 TONS of rocks and minerals EVERY YEAR!
