Quarry

nounStandard termMining

A large surface excavation used to extract building stone, sand, gravel, or aggregate.

An open-pit mine specifically designed for extracting industrial minerals and dimensional stone rather than metallic ores or coal. Quarries are typically developed in massive rock formations like limestone, granite, or slate. The operation focuses on cutting or blasting rock into manageable blocks or crushing it into specific aggregate sizes for construction materials.

Heard on the job

The haul trucks are moving three thousand tons of limestone out of the quarry every shift.