An Indian quarry company has an ambitious mission: to become the world’s biggest quarry owners in the span of one or two years. Pacific Stone Mart, a family-run group, is led by “visionary” B.R. Agarwal, chairman and managing director, and his sons Rahul Agarwal and Ashish Agarwal. B.R. Agarwal is an entrepreneur whose dream is to create the world’s best educational institutes in Gujrat and Rajasthan in northern India, including medical, dental and technical education.
His company is already involved in many other sectors and has pioneered in the field of education by opening many medical, engineering and management colleges in India.
Coupled with this is the desire to continue development of the most sustainable natural stone company, operated by Pacific Stone Mart in Rajasthan, the largest state in India.
B R Agarwal represents stone suppliers from the US, Latin America region (Peru, Mexico), Europe (Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy and Holland) and Asia (China, Korea, Pakistan, Indonesia and Thailand).
The company’s registered office is in Udaipur, Rajasthan, and one of its primary targets is “to achieve total integration by dynamically fusing backward as well as forward integration.” The business is also supported by a team of external professionals.
Since 2012, Pacific Stone Mart has been engaged in the production of highly sought-after Desert Cream Granite, which is being extracted from a sprawling 300hectare mining site in the village of Mungeria, Rajasthan.
The Barmer district in West India spreads across 28,387km2 of land, and forms part of the Great Indian Desert, also known as the Thar Desert. In summer months the temperature can soar to 51°C and drop to freezing point in winter.
Like many other districts in the desert region, Barmer is known for its folk music and dance. Unlike other areas, though, Barmer is also home to the specialty stone, the durable and beautiful Desert Cream Granite.
Pacific Stone Mart, a leading exporter operating out of Barmer District in Rajasthan State, is a Pioneer in the manufacturing of natural stone products in India. It mines a large variety of natural stone and manufactures, supplies and exports the material, catering for the needs of general contractors, developers, architects, homebuilders, designers and dealers.
The company produces blocks, slabs, and cut-to-size tiles for wholesale. The precious Desert Cream Granite is available in a range of sizes; block dimensions often dependent on the transport logistics of worldwide delivery.
The stone is sent to suppliers in the USA, Europe, Middle East and Asia.
Among other equipment, Pacific Stone Mart operates a fleet of
“Now we believe that we are also the first company in India to place an order for a Volvo L350F block handler as well,” says B R Agarwal, founder and owner of Pacific Stone Mart.
“Being the first off the mark comes naturally to us I guess,” he says.
Pacific Stone Mart also owns other Volvo excavator models, including an EC360BLC; five EC210s B-Prime Series and six EC380Ds. The site’s goal was to produce 50,000m3 of granite in 2013.
“Our experience with Volvo equipment so far can be summed up in a few words: a job well done on time. We rarely have problems with our machines and help is always on hand if we need it,” says B R Agarwal.
Volvo CE operates a comprehensive service network in the area complete with its own workshop to ensure machine downtime is kept to a minimum.
“The L350F block handler can deliver so much with ease.
“It has incredible power, advanced features and an amazing care cab, which is really comfortable. I think that the Volvo L350F is more fuel efficient than other machines in its class. Now, if that’s not a huge advantage to my business, then what is?”
Pacific Stone Mart has ambitious plans that will see the company increase output volumes and venture into new overseas markets, creating a higher demand for the best quarrying and mining equipment.
“There are no prizes for guessing which machines we will choose,” says B R Agarwal. “There’s huge demand for this variety of stone. Customers worldwide rely on us to deliver the finest quality stone on time, and we depend on our Volvo fleet to make sure that we can deliver.
“As one of the pioneers in manufacturing of natural stone in India, we have over 20 years of experience in the stone industry, and have acquired a leading position among the Indian granite manufactures and exporters.”
Our products, such as blocks, slabs, tiles and cut-to-size, cater to specific needs of contractors, developers, architects, homebuilders, designers and dealers across India.”
As well as the mining lease at Barmer, Pacific Stone Mart also has leases at Jaisalmer, Jalore, and Deogarh in Rajasthan where the overall reserve of granites in the company’s area is 91.66 million tonnes as certified by Mining Department of Rajasthan. It has produced up to 5,000m³/ 35,000tonnes of granite block in a month.
The company has fully mechanised mines with equipment accrued from
Drilling equipment includes the Sandvik DQ 500 core drill machine for drilling of between 4” and 5” (10cm and 12.7cm) and up to 100feet long (30.5m), both horizontal and vertical. The DQ 500 is a hydraulic, self-propelled, self-contained, crawler-based surface rig designed for pilot hole drilling in dimensional stone quarries.
Dimension stone is rock that is removed from its original site to be used with minor alteration or as in the case of Pacific Stone Mart, rock that is broken, sawn, and ground and polished for use as building or ornamental stone.
After the face of the granite is exposed, the stone is removed from the quarry in benches and a variety of techniques can be used.
Quarrying operations typically include the drilling of holes along the perimeter of the bench, followed by either cutting the stone out of the deposit using saws equipped with diamond wire or by splitting the stone using hydraulic splitters or small explosive charges.
Once the bench is cut or split loose from the deposit, heavy equipment is used to lift the granite bench and transfer it to an inspection area for grading, temporary storage, occasional pre-processing into slabs, and eventual shipment from the site.
At Mungeria, Pacific Stone Mart also operates a Sandvik DQ240 R, a hydraulic, excavator-mounted splitting and line double drill unit with double tapered rod for dimensional stone quarries and a Sandvik DC120 single drill hydraulic, self-propelled drilling unit on a four-wheel drive carrier drill with double tapered rod as, which drills up to 26feet horizontal and vertical.
After the blocks are mined from the quarry they are loaded using the Volvo CE L350 block handler onto an open bed trailer and hauled out of the mining area to the processing plant. Volvo CE excavators are also used in the process.
Other equipment on site includes a derrick crane and a wire saw machine along with a block pusher from Turkish company Ertas.
The company produces various types of blocks, but mainly Royal Cream, Royal Gold, Desert Cream and Pacific Black, which are produced as flow size 240 x 120 x 120 and above for the gang saw and 240 x 120 x 120 and below for gang saw and cutter.
The granite blocks are taken to the processing plant where they are cut into various sizes of slabs as per the requirement of the customers. These slabs/tiles are polished before shipping to the customer.
The water used in the gang saws is recirculated and processed for industrial consumption.
“The company is exploring the possibility of opening other granite quarries in various parts of the company. There are no firm time lines for the execution of this expansion project,” says B R Agarwal.
“Our mission is to become the world’s biggest quarry owners in the span of one or two years.”DRILLING
1 x Sandvik DQ 500 core drill machine
1 x Sandvik DQ240 R double drill
1 x Sandvik DC120 single drill
MOVING/LOADING
1 x Volvo L350F block handler
1 x EC360BLC
5 x EC210 B-Prime Series
6 x Volvo EC380D
1 x Ertas block pusher
