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Quarrying 

 

Quarrying (stone mining) is open pit mining using drilling and blasting to remove stone to make a variety of building products (as opposed to metal mining which produces metals after processing).  Products include dimension stone, rock, crushed stone, riprap, and other materials.

Quarries often crush stone to make construction aggregate, gravel, and sand which are used in making cement and asphalt (see Aggregates tab).  Tiechert's Cool Quarry near Auburn mines limestone as an example.    

 

Quarries are very important to use because they produce materials that are used in building our homes, businesses, public facilities, and infrastructure.  For example, rip rap is used to construct levees that protect our communities from flooding.  It is important to have quarries located close to our communities to produce their products locally and to minimize transportation costs of the products to keep material costs as low as possible.

 

The Sierrans for Responsible Resource Development (the "Sierrans") believe that deposits containing resources of stone that can be used for building and construction need to be identified and protected for development by current and future generations.  The Sierrans believe the State needs to adopt policies that encourage the discovery, exploration, permitting, and development of stone deposits in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

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