A natural resource.
Enormous reserves – quarries all over Europe – ecological awareness.
Modern technology has enabled us to increase the utilization of gravel and stone to the highest level in Europe. Asamer produces prime quality mineral products for all our customer’s needs. Since Asamer has large raw material reserves of its own, the company is a reliable long-term partner in the construction industry.
Gravel. The natural building material.
Asamer’s gravel works are some of the most modern in Europe, allowing us to maintain the highest quality whilst using every cubic metre.
In order to minimize the environmental impact, new quarries are chosen with great care based on their environmental sustainability, economic viability and legality. We use the best possible noise and dust protection equipment available in our gravel works in order to protect the local population and our employees.
Asamer owns over 30 gravel pits in Europe, 15 of which are in Austria. Further pit openings are planned.
Stone. Quality and durability.
Asamer mines quality stone for the building industry in over 20 quarries around Europe.
The stone and grit is used, amongst other things, as an aggregate for concrete and asphalt, as well road and railway construction.
Minimizing noise and dust to protect both environment and employees is of particular importance when mining stone quarries, and Asamer uses the newest technology to provide the best protection.
A short definition of terms:
Our most important mineral raw materials
The best known raw materials are sand, gravel, clay, iron ore, basalt, marble, granite and industrial minerals. However, quartz, silicon and germanium are such important raw materials in modern technology (e.g. for glass and semiconductors) that life without them is almost unthinkable.
Mining in the gravel pits and stone quarries is done by machine or by hand. The mechanical methods include extraction through cutting or explosion, or simple digging it out. Crushers, mills and sieves are used to break the raw material down to the desired size. The big stone blocks are finished by hand and used for ashlar.
A wealth of different products can be made from these raw materials: loose chippings, gravel concrete, glass, ceramics, ballast, plaster, mortar and cement amongst other things. It’s amazing how many everyday products actually originate in these mines. These raw materials are the foundation of our modern society.
The difference between a gravel pit and a stone quarry
The mining method used depends on the type of raw material. A sand or gravel pit can be dug out or dredged. Extracting stone from a quarry requires the stone to be blasted or cut out. The stone is then transported to the processing plant via conveyor belt or skip. Once the stone has been broken down and sieved it is stored on a heap or in a silo. From there it is transported away for further refinement and treatment into glass, ceramics, building materials and other products.
Basalt: basalt is a grey or black volcanic rock mainly composed of iron and magnesium minerals. It is formed when lava cools rapidly on the earth’s surface. The most famous basalt flow in the world is the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland – an example of columnal basalt which is formed when the contraction on cooling splits the basalt into columns. Basalt is mostly used for highway and railway track roadbeds because it is very hard yet not very brittle.
Bedrock and Soil: Soil is a mixture of plant and animal debris and broken stone (e.g. sand, clay or gravel). Bedrock is the solid rock found beneath the soil.
Rock Cycle: Igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks are transformed by geodynamic processes like erosion or sedimentation.
Granite: Granite is a course grained crystalline igneous rock. It is mostly composed of equal parts of quartz, feldspars and plagioclase. Additionally, 20-40% is made up of the dark minerals biotite, muscovite and occasionally amphibole. Granite is one of the most common rocks in the earths crust. It is usually medium to course grained and varies in colour from pink to dark grey or black. Granite is very hard and durable with a relatively high water permeability.
Limestone: Limestone is a sedimentary rock which is primarily composed of calcium carbonate with varying amounts of sand, clay and silica.
Gravel: Gravel is a geological size class of loose stone that is larger than sand, but smaller than pebbles. Fine gravel has a diameter of 2mm whilst a course gravel can be as large as 64mm. Due to its large pore space, gravel has a high water permeability and is therefore an excellent roadbed material where good drainage is important. Gravel is widely used in the building industry, to fill dams, as roadbeds for highways and railways, and as a raw material in the production of concrete and asphalt.
Magma: Magma is the molten rock found beneath the Earth’s surface. All Igneous rocks are formed from magma. Magma which comes to the Earth’s surface is called lava.
Igneous Rock: igneous rock is formed when magma (molten rock) cools. If the cooling process takes place beneath the Earth's surface, the resulting rock is called intrusive or plutonic rock. If, however, the magma comes into contact with air above the Earth's surface and cools quickly, it is called extrusive or volcanic rock.
Metamorphic Rock: Metamorphic rock is formed through changes in physical form and chemical composition caused by heat and extreme pressure. This process is called metamorphism. During metamorphism, the structure and mineral composition of the rock changes and new minerals (index minerals) can be formed. Quartzit is a metamorphic form of sandstone.
Mineral raw materials: Any naturally occurring mineral, be it gaseous, liquid or solid,, pure or compound, can be described as a mineral raw material.
Quartz: Quartz is a mineral found in the Earth’s continental crust and is made up of silica. It has a hardness value of 7 on the Mohs scale and is very resistant to erosion and weathering. Quartz ranges in colour from transparent, to grey, violet or pink. Quartz is composed of silica tetrahedra (SiO2) and is a major component in other silicates (e.g. feldspar or clay). Quartz is sometimes mistaken for calcite, although it is much harder and calcite can be easily identified using a weak hydrochloric acid (it starts to foam).
Sand: Sand is naturally occurring material made up of rock particles (sand grains) with a diameter between 0.063 and 4 millimetres. The exact mineral composition of sand is dependent on its location, since sand is formed through the erosion of other materials through water and wind. Most sand is formed from quartz, due to its resistance to erosion. The fine white sand found in the tropics is formed from coral reefs (which include limestone). Sand is categorised according to its grain size: fine sand (0.063- 0.2 mm), medium sand (0.2 – 0.63 mm) and coarse sand (0.63 - 4 mm).
Sand has a variety of industrial and commercial uses:
- It is the most important aggregate in concrete.
- It is the major raw material for manufacturing glass.
- As an abrasive material.
- One of the raw materials for manufacturing semiconductors.
- Due to its large void volume, sand and sandstone deposits are important storage mediums for drinking water, oil and gas.
- Last, but not least, long deposits of sand on the earth’s surface are popular holiday destinations.
Clay: Clay is composed mainly of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and silicon dioxide (SiO2), better known as quartz. The occurrence of small amounts of other minerals produces the wide variety of clay types. Clay is a type of sediment with a particle size under 2 micro-millimetres. Clay is used to make ceramics and bricks. Cement is made primarily from clay and limestone. Clay is also ideal for making models, and is used widely for this purpose by industry and artists.
(Source: Unterrichtsmaterialien Forum Rohstoffe und WWF Panda GmbH, Wien)