World's most precious marble mined in a Tuscan mega quarry

DW (English)

The rare marble used by Michelangelo is mined in a huge Tuscan quarry where panels are cut from solid rock at an altitude of around 1,000 meters.

Transcript

00:00At an elevation of 1,000 meters, one of the world's most precious materials is mined in Italy.

00:14Only here can you find the finest marble.

00:18It's exceptional quality was also revered by Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo.

00:35A single block can cost over 10,000 euros, and producing fine marble slabs takes several days.

00:48Italian marble has been mined in the Carrara region for over 2,000 years.

00:53But it's in the Apuan Alps region that the most expensive marble in the world is extracted.

01:04Geologist Daniele Mantovani and his team produce thousands of tons of it every year.

01:14This is a statuario marble.

01:17It's a statuario, you can recognize the statuario because not all the white is the same white.

01:24This one, if you put against light, you see the light passing through it.

01:31It's because of the grain, it's because of the background.

01:35The region lies on Italy's western Mediterranean coast, and the mining rights belong to the company Enro.

01:43It can take up to 20 hours for workers to cut a piece from the rock face using huge band saws.

01:50Chainsaws are used for the horizontal cuts.

01:54This is what creates the blocks, which need to be tipped over to transport them.

01:59To do this, they place a cushion into the gap, which is inflated bit by bit.

02:04Wedges are used to keep the gap open while the slab is pulled over.

02:08This block weighs 120 tons.

02:11Sometimes they break because the marble cracks along the veins, but the remaining pieces can still be used.

02:18Geologists have to precisely map the different kinds of marble found on the mountain,

02:23because customers can order from a variety of patterns.

02:28According to the project or to the client, we need to have certain patterns,

02:33we have to try to make the blocks the most suitable as possible for the commissions that we have.

02:40So I'm here checking all the production process for the company.

02:45Several times a day, the blocks are transported down the valley by truck.

02:49It takes many hours to create tablets like these that decorate buildings, but more on that later.

02:56At Onro's production facility, the blocks weighing up to 60 tons are first registered.

03:06In the sawmill, they are cut into fine slabs.

03:09This process alone can take 20 hours, from one morning to the next.

03:15Gino Cinquini is the head of the sawmill, and for his job he needs not only a lot of patience, but also a lot of water.

03:24One machine requires about 1,000 liters per minute or even more, but it's recycled water.

03:31It's never used just once, it's in a cycle, it's water that gets cleaned and reused in a closed circuit.

03:43Almost all the stone saws have industrial diamonds to make them harder than marble.

03:49The next day, the cut slabs are polished. First, they receive a resin layer.

03:55This is later sanded off, but the resin fills the marble's hairline cracks and makes it smooth.

04:01They cost up to 300 euros per square meter and can be very thin, from several centimeters down to 5 millimeters.

04:09Polishing is done with brushes, rubber and diamond tools.

04:13There are different types of marble, white, black, red, green. You need to polish each one the right way.

04:22The marble is then cut to the right shape for its purpose. These here are thin tiles.

04:30The project's on-row supplies include mosques in Abu Dhabi, corporate headquarters in the US, and luxurious floor coverings.

04:44In the final stages, the pieces are assembled based on their color patterns, to make sure they look their best once they're on display.

04:59Paolo Carli is the head and owner of the 200-year-old company.

05:03Does he worry that the marble mountain which his company owns might one day be completely gone?

05:14No, we are talking about thousands of years. So our quarry at the Altissimo is just minimally extracted.

05:23We are not massive consumers of blocks from our quarry.

05:28White statuary marble is the core business of the company, embracing the times they've also invested in 3D technology

05:36to create art sculptures, drawing on both their manual skills and robotics.

05:42As part of their marketing strategy, the company has collaborated with renowned artists such as Hans Arp, Henry Moore, and Tony Craig.

05:51Art helps us to develop our modern technology.

05:55So today Enro is the only company that represents architectural design and art in every daily composition of our fabrication.

06:05To nurture the next generation, the company partners with the local vocational school.

06:11Students here are working on an eye, inspired by Michelangelo's David.

06:19The sculptor also used marble from the region.

06:27The miners here are still at the summit, but they're making their way down the marble mountain one block at a time.

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