Kūmas Quarry, Novadnieki Parish, Saldus Municipality, Kurzeme Region, Latviai

Regional Level Types
Kūmas Quarry	Quarry (Active)
Novadnieki Parish	Parish
Saldus Municipality	Municipality
Kurzeme Region	Region
Latvia	Country

The Kūmas Limestone Quarry is a Late Permian (Naujoji Akmene suite) active limestone deposit and is located in the Novadnieki Parish southern part. It is the biggest Latvian limestone quarry. In terms of size and volume of material extraction, it is the leader among all limestone, dolomite and clay quarries in Latvia. The quarry is 1,8 km long and 1 km wide (2021 data).

The Kūmas limestone deposit is located in 18 km away from the cement factory in Broceni, and was first discovered in the early 1960's in the search for limestone needed for cement industry in Saldus and Dobele Municipalities. In 1965, the exploration of the deposit was carried out and in the period from 1973 to 1975 - its northern parts. The useful part in the deposit is formed by to 21 m thick limestone layer, the lower part of which is dominated by earthy, weak limestones with ellipsoidal porcelain limestone inclusions, but upper part consists of more chemically pure organogenic limestone.

Mining of the deposit began in 1988, in the eastern part of the deposit, where the average thickness of the useful layer is 10 m. The quarry is reminiscent of a stadium, where mining moves from the center to the periphery, moving the cover layer rocks of central developed part. In 2017, according to satellite data, the quarry began minind operations in new part of the deposit.

80% of the extracted limestone is delivered in Broceni Cement Plant. There rock is crushed and used for cement clinker production, but the rest 20% of the mass is crushed in the former Sātiņi-Sesile Quarry territory area, from where the coarser fraction (60-150 mm) is used in metallurgy, the finest - in other sectors of the economy. Annually Kūmas quarry produces about 500-650 thousand m³ of limestone (2015-2020 data).

Local rocks from this deposit belong to the "Kūmas" type - earthy limestones with ellipsoidal porcelain limestone inclusions. Often quarry rocks have a content of fossils (mostly brachiopods), but also can find passages (filled with debris) from crawling marine organisms. Throughout the territory of the quarry are also common such formations as stylolites (serrated surfaces within a rock mass at which mineral material has been removed by pressure dissolution, in a deformation process that decreases the total volume of rock).

In the quarry, one can find calcite specimens with different generations. Are interesting finds of brownish calcite, glowing under UV light in a creamy yellow color (due to organic compounds inclusions?). Some calcite specimens are covered with small pyrite crystals.

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