Block work

The Most Sought-After Marble In The World Is The Tight White Statue Marble Statuario – found in Carrara, northern Italy. It is located in a 1 km thick layer of rock stretching through the region's three valleys, and is extracted at nearly 200 quarries.

Cooperativa Gioia, which produces about 95000 tonnes of marble per year uses a Volvo L330E for the tough job of handling the marble blocks. “The normal size of the blocks taken from the rock is between 100 and 150 tonnes,” said Mr Corrado, the machines’ operator. “Blocks are then cut into 2 or 3 m cubes. Depending on the quality, the weight of the blocks will vary up to 30 tonnes. The Volvo loader lets us move and load the blocks efficiently. The L330E has the power needed for effective block handling and, despite its size, the compact design makes manoeuvring easy, a distinct advantage in smaller quarries.”

Guglielmo Vennai is another company in Carrara that has invested in a Volvo L330E block handler. Annual production ranges from 30000 to 35000 tonnes and the company has its own processing plants where the marble is made into different products for both export and domestic sale.

Roberto Cabani owns Guglielmo Vennai and is satisfied with the Volvo loader. “It's a good machine with very powerful hydraulics,” he said. “It's also manoeuvrable and can turn in tight spaces, something that is important to us since the space on each level in the quarry is narrow and cramped. Fuel consumption is also clearly lower compared to all other machines we've had.”