Lakshmi Stones is the first company in Bangalore, India, to buy an Atlas Copco XAHS 186 portable compressor, and it has been added to the company’s existing fleet of six XAHS units
The company, which quarries pink granite at the site 60km from the city, has invested in the newly-launched
Lakshmi Stones has an existing fleet of Atlas Copco XA 176 compressors, which it has been using for the past few years.
Bangalore in the south Indian state of Karnataka, known as Stone City thanks to its huge granite deposits, is India’s fifth largest and one of the country’s fastest-growing cities.
Lakshmi’s managing director Boregonda Umashankar says that the company ventured into the mining of granite in 1999, and that the Yelakaralla Halli quarry, with its large deposits of fine pink granite, was opened in April 2004 on a ten-year lease, although this is likely to be extended.
The blocks of pink granite quarried from the hillside site are cut to the industry standard size of 3m3 and are then delivered to a Bangalore factory where they are trimmed, polished and then exported to the European markets.
The output of granite blocks is between 250-300m3/month, with the quarry working seven days a week on eight-hour shifts.
Rock drills are all powered by compressed air, and are used for cutting the granite blocks out of the deposits which are located on a hillside and require only surface excavation for access.
The XAHS 186 compressor, powered by a
“We use 3.5inch rock drills, and the extra pressure means faster working. We have also found that the fuel consumption is actually lower with added productivity and so we are getting all-round improved efficiency,” says Umashankar
