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22|December 2020
A Mountain with a Heart of Marble
Going Underground with Vermont Danby
Avisitor to the quiet Vermont village of Danby might admire the rolling mountains, stately maple trees, and idyllic small farms. Bread and breakfasts, autumn foliage, and wintertime skiing are among the area’s famous attractions.
But passers-by are unlikely to even realize the tranquil town is home to a world-class industry. “Unless you know what you’re looking for you never would know that we’re up here,” says Peter Prvulovic, head of sales and marketing for Vermont Quarries Corporation.
Vermont Quarries is the source of Danby marble, a stone with a devoted following among kitchen designers and homeowners and a rich history in American archi- tecture. But the company – quite literally – is on the downlow. “If you know where to look,” says Prvulovic, “you would see a white open space in the middle of a forest.”
Tucked inside Dorset Mountain is the world’s largest underground marble quarry, spanning an area of about 16 football fields and stretching for over a mile – all un- derground. There’s one entrance to the Vermont Danby quarry, and it’s the same one that’s been in use for over 100 years.
Slippery rock Gazette
Karin Kirk
usenaturalstone.com
Charts by Karin Kirk
Photos Courtesy Vermont Quarries
“It’s like a city,” says Luca Mannolini, describing the bright lighting, machines whirring, trucks scurrying enormous blocks of white stone across cavernous spaces, and skilled workers at the helm of state of the art fabrication equipment.
“We do everything in-house,” says Mannolini, who is the General Manager of the quarry. “And everything underground.”
The Quarry’s Rebirth
The Danby quarry sprung to life in the 1850s, working above ground at first, then shifting to un- derground operations in 1902. In Vermont’s marble heyday, doz- ens of quarries worked the state’s famous ‘marble belt.’ But one by one, the quarries closed. The Danby quarry was not spared. It too, stalled in the 1970s.
In pursuit of high-quality mar- ble, a partnership of two Italian companies, R.E.D. Graniti and Mazzucchelli Marmi, revived the
Danby quarry. R.E.D. Graniti is headquartered in Italy’s Carrara region but owns and operates quarries all around the world, in- cluding Colorado Stone Quarries and Virginia Mist. Mazzucchelli Marmi is also based in Carrara, where they quarry marble and coordinate sales of marble and quartzite worldwide.
Mannolini moved from Italy to Vermont in 1996 with the tall task of resurrecting the idle quar- ry, and he’s ushered the business through major changes. “When I came here 25 years ago, without a flashlight in your pocket you didn’t know where to go,” he says.
Since its rebirth in 1993, the company has made steady im- provements, from machinery, to workforce training, to custom- er relations. Mannolini is quick to credit his core team, which includes Prvulovic and quarry manager Keith Millard. While Prvulovic keeps the marble flow- ing to customers, Millard drives the operation from the opposite end, as he organizes the quarrying to keep a steady supply of fresh stone. “We rely on Keith to get us the right material to feed our gang saws,” says Mannolini. He adds, “We can have all the mod- ern equipment in the world, but if we do not have the right mate- rial that equipment is not worth anything.”
Production Line Entirely Inside the Mountain
Under R.E.D. Graniti and Mazzucchelli ownership, along with Mannolini’s leadership, the quarry was revived from a dor- mant state, to one that produces over 7,000 square feet of finished slabs per day. For context, that’s enough marble to cover 40 to 50 kitchens, every day.
“Our entire production is inside the vacant portions of the quarry that have been quarried out in the 1900s,” explains Prvulovic. “We do our quarrying, our slab- bing, our finishing of the slabs, and shipping, all within our mountain.”
The quarry operates with a quick tempo, and Prvulovic
appears to have abundant energy to keep pace. “We cut from 6am to almost 11pm on a daily basis, Monday through Friday. Just to give you an idea,” says Prvulovic. “They keep Dan and me busy here!” he laughed, speaking of his colleague Dan Drew, the west coast sales representative.
Most quarry operations have to contend with weather, and many in northern climes close during the winter.
“That’s the wonderful thing about being underground,” says Prvulovic. “You can work as many days as you want and you can’t use the rain, snow, sleet, or anything else as an excuse.”
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Stone cutting machinery reminiscent of a huge chainsaw blade is used to extract blocks from the quarry walls.
Processing blocks into slabs occurs inside the mountain.