New Mexico Quarry Big On Calcium

BELEN, N.M. – It may not be a world record, but it’s a high-water mark for New Mexico: A 72,000-lbs block of marble.
The 13’ X 9’ X 4 mammoth cube came out of the New Mexico Travertine Quarry 20 miles west of Belen on Nov. 21, according to the Valencia County News-Bulletin. The next day, it ended up in the yard of a Taos, N.M., sculptor.
The brown marble – a calcium carbonate called Vista Grande Onyx – will be transformed by sculptor Doug Scott into The Original Texans, a bigger-than-life-size buffalo and calf for West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. It’ll be unveiled during the school’s homecoming this fall.
Getting the stone to Taos proved to be anything but an easy job. Two blocks cut at the quarry in September didn’t pass muster. When the final cut on the right block came, it took approximately two weeks, according to the News-Bulletin.
Jim Lardner, one of the owners of New Mexico Travertine, told the paper that instead of tipping the block, workers used air bags and a hydraulic air jack to push it from the quarry face. Typical blocks from the quarry, he said, are usually 20,000 lbs. (New Mexico Travertine is a sister company of Rocky Mountain Stone in Albuquerque, N.M.)
The block went on a special trailer and, armed with a special permit for the big load, a truck delivered the stone to Scott’s Taos studio the next day. And, according to the News-Bulletin, it’s going to stay under a tarp until the weather gets a little warmer for sculpting in February or March.