Commercial production of natural stone is being carried out in most countries of the world. Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Norway, Brazil are recognized to be leaders in this branch. Nevertheless, in recent years, Ukraine is considered to be a serious competitor to mentioned countries.

Technology of facing stone extraction fundamentally differs from other solid minerals deposits mining technologies. When mining, the task is to destroy the rock to a size limited the terms of extraction and shipment, and then processing or direct use. Typically, such a continuous destruction does not worsen the quality of extracted minerals.

Extraction of blocks for the production of granite is another case. Here it is necessary to retain the natural integrity and the solidity of the extracted blocks. In order to provide this, granite extraction technology is to be gentle in relation to it during the whole technological chain: from the extraction of blocks from the solid monolith to storing of thereof, because the damage or reduction in the overall strength of the granite blocks can not be eliminated by further processing.

The quality of granite is strongly influenced by the way of the extraction of thereof. There are three main ways to extract the stone.

The most amateurish of them, and unfortunately, the most common - is the production by the blast. A deep hole is bored by drilling method in a rock, where the charge is laid with following blasting. Among the breakaway pieces of rock the largest boulders are selected, which are then sawn into slabs. Pluses of this method of extraction of stone lie in the fact that it is extremely cheap. But the disadvantages outweigh this advantage. At first, the quality of extracted material is low: during the explosion the structure of stone is covered with microcracks affecting the strength of the material. Secondly, this method of deposit mining is extremely irrational, since the explosion leads to crumbling of the rock: large boulders suitable for sawing, make up no more than 70%, while the remaining 30% go to wastes.

The second method of granite extraction is the method of breaking off with the air bag. It is similar to the first method so that the rock is also drilled with insertion of reservoir being inflated with air under high pressure. This method avoids the appearance of microcracks in the structure of stone and is more economical in terms of deposit consumption, but also allows more accurate prediction of rock fracture spot, than under almost uncontrollable explosion.

Third, the most expensive method of granite extraction – is the method of stone-cutters - now the most popular in the West. Quarrying by this method provides the possibility to completely avoid microcracks and gives the most rational way to mine the deposit.

Granite Treatment Types: 

    * Polished - with a mirror shine, a clear reflection of objects, with no trace of the previous processing operations;
    * Smooth matte (glossy) - without a trace of processing the previous operation and a full identification of the stone texture;
    * Grinding - uniformly rough with traces of processing obtained only when grinding, with a roughness of pattern with height of up to 0.5 mm;
    * Sawed - uneven rough, with a roughness of pattern with height of up to 2 mm, treated with ultrasound, identifying colors and stone texture;
    * Heat-treated - rough surface with flaking traces;
    * Chiseled (bush hammered) - uniformly rough, with a roughness of pattern with height of up to 5 mm.
    * Sledged (rock) – imitation of the natural rock split with chaotic cavities and bores without trace of tools, with the height of the pattern 50-200 mm.