Latitude: 50°39'54"N
Longitude: 4°9'20"E
SA Carrières Unis de Porphyre de Quenast, Rebecq, Brabant Wallon Province, Belgique
Porphyry is a variety of igneous rock known for its hardness and durability, the Porphyry of Quenast consists for over 80% of Feldspar.
The exploitation of Porphyry in the area goes back to the 16th century.
In 1844 M Zaman purchased the best quarries and in 1864 he grouped the seven quarries into one society, the SA Carrières Unis de Porphyre de Quenast.
Today the quarry has become an immense operation, in area and depth one of the largest quarries in Europe with a annual capacity of 2 million metric tons but at the moment averaging about 1,6 million metric tons a year.
Originally, because of its durability, the Porphyry was used for the production of cobble stones for roads, one can still see them in many old roads in Belgium and France (the annual speed cycling event Paris-Roubaix is an epic event due to the many strips of cobble stones (Pavés or Kasseien) that are very hard physically on the athlete but also ruin many bikes)
Nowadays the main product is gravel for projects where hardness, durability and resistance of the gravel is of great importance.
Porphyry from the area has been used for instance in the huge Delta Works in Holland, in the "Chunnel" (the tunnel under the channel linking France to the United Kingdom) and for the high-speed TGV tracks (they exclusively use Porphyry)
Today four Porphyry quarries are operated (in order from east to west): Quenast, Bierghes, and the side by side located quarries of Lessines and Deux-Acren.
References
- Histoire, industrie et Geologie des Carrières de Quenast. Claude Pire, 1993.
Mineral List
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