The place from which stones and similar materials are obtained is called a quarry.
The quarry is the place from which stones or other similar materials are obtained . That is the first meaning of the term mentioned in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ).
Quarries are mining operations that are carried out in the open sky. Granite , limestone or marble can be obtained from a quarry, to name a few possibilities. It should be noted that a quarry constitutes a limited resource: it is exhausted at a certain time without the possibility of generating new stones .
Characteristics of the quarries
Although it is normal for quarries not to be of considerable size, if we add the surface area of all those that exist in the world, it is likely that the result exceeds that of the largest mining operations .
Unlike the products that can be obtained from other mining operations, those from quarries are not subjected to concentration . Mineral concentration processes are understood as those that have the purpose of enriching the useful species of minerals from an economic point of view, for which the sterile components (also known as gangue) are eliminated and separated, sometimes associating them by their physical properties.
The depletion of a quarry, which occurs when its useful life ends, is a problem for the environment . When the quarry no longer offers stones, the mining operation is abandoned. In this way the landscape is affected, leaving the remains of the exploitation and the environment destroyed.
Marble is extracted from quarries.
The case of Spain
In Spain , for example, there are a large number of quarries in the municipality of Macael , belonging to the Andalusian province of Almería .
There the work of extracting white marble is carried out, which is then used for the construction and manufacture of different structures and items, such as ornamental products .
The quarry, a type of rock
Volcanic tuff , a type of volcanic rock, is called quarry in Mexico and is found in various parts of the country. It is a type of rock that Mexicans used in architectural and sculpture works from the time before colonization and throughout the colonial period.
Oaxaca , for example, stands out for the use of green quarry in its baroque architecture; In San Miguel el Alto, Morelia, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas , on the other hand, their historic buildings exhibit pink quarry.
The concept in football
Another use of the notion of quarry is linked to the place where the people who carry out a certain activity at a professional level come from . This concept is very common in the field of football .
The quarry is equivalent to what in some countries is known as lower, youth or training divisions . The concept refers to the set of teams that bring together very young players (children or adolescents), who compete against other teams also made up of athletes of the same age.
The youth players not only participate in tournaments, but also train and learn fundamentals and techniques to, in the future, be able to join a professional team. Generally, a club aspires to have a youth team that shares the playing style and work philosophy of the professional team: in this way the professionalization of the youth players develops naturally, facilitating integration.
The term quarry was coined in this context in the late 1940s , when football became a fully professional sport in Spain . It was in Madrid where the lower categories were founded, something that over time the other Spanish clubs imitated until the first youth competition took place, known as the Copa del Rey Juvenil .