A Brief History Of Granite Mining

Granite is widely distributed on the earth's surface and is one of the earliest natural rocks discovered and utilized by humans. There are many relics of ancient development and utilization of granite around the world, such as the pyramids built by the ancient Egyptians more than 4000 years ago, temples in ancient Greece, sacred caves in ancient India, and the Colosseum in ancient Rome.
The development and utilization of granite by the Chinese nation can be traced back to the Neolithic Age around 10000 years ago. At the Emaokou Stone Tool Making Site in Huairen, Shanxi Province, there are relics indicating that people had already mined exposed granite (porphyries, tuffs) on the valley slopes to make stone tools. Similar discoveries have also been made in Xiqiao Mountain, Nanhai, Guangdong. The wooden giant stone greenhouse building in Haicheng, Liaoning is an example of people using granite in the late Neolithic period. The Stele Forest in Xi'an houses granite carved horses dating back to 424 BC. A section of the Qin and Han ancient Great Wall in Chifeng used a large amount of chopped axe stones. In many cultural relics such as tomb architecture during the Han Dynasty, cave sculptures during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and tomb stone carvings during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, traces of ancient use of granite can be seen. The development and utilization of granite was already common during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), such as the 48 meter high Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda in Quanzhou, Fujian, which was entirely built of granite. There were 50 stone bridges built by the Song Dynasty in the Quanzhou area, all of which were made of local granite. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, stone has become an indispensable building material in palaces, tombs, bridges, gardens, and royal residences. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the mining and processing of granite developed rapidly, and its application fields continued to expand. Many major buildings extensively used granite, such as the "Monument to the People's Heroes" in Beijing, which is as high as 37.94 meters, and the core stone alone weighs 120 tons, made of granite from Qingdao, Shandong; Nanjing Yuhuatai Granite Carving Martyrs Group Statue; Giant granite stone carving of the "Mother of the Yellow River" in Lanzhou; Since the 1980s, hotels, restaurants, office buildings, banks, shopping malls and other newly built buildings in major cities across the country have gradually become a trend of using granite and marble for indoor and outdoor decoration, making large public buildings more beautiful. The consumption of granite decorative panels in the country has increased by more than 500 times compared to before the founding of the People's Republic of China.