I went through a marble mine tour today. There are HUGE quarries in the mountain sides here in Italy for white and grey marble. Not only surface mines however
I was in a marble deep mine that was made in the middle of a former narrow gauge train tunnel (for transportation of marble). The mine workings start in the middle of the tunnel and branch off to the sides. Unfortunatly theres no rails anymore.. we rode into the mine in a van! It felt like something youd be doing in Mexico. Its about 50 feet tall inside with huge rooms where the marble was extracted. They have heavy machinery in the mine to aid in the extraction. (Excavators, bull dozers, bucket loaders) Its an active mine that they give tours in while they arent working. They cut enormous sections of marble right out of the walls and let them fall to the floor of the mine. They make a dirt bed where the marble is going to fall so that the gigantic pieces dont shatter when they hit the bottem. Cool stuff. Id much rather be working in a deep mine with the heat outside around here. I took quite a few pics. Ill have to sort through them when i get home and post some up.
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