Quarry produces “RED-HOT” marble

Saying “It’s in his blood” truly describes Chris Trider, president of MacLeod Resources Ltd., of River Denys, N.S., because when you consider the number of cuts and scrapes he’s received during the past 10 + years of quarrying rocks and stones, it’s probably safe to guess that he does in fact, have bits and pieces of rock and dust floating in his veins.

“That’s why I weigh so much,” he says with a laugh as he went on to explain that working with stone is somewhat hereditary. “Growing up in Dartmouth, my mother had always made us aware of her great grandfather’s role as a stone mason in constructing the Shebenacadie Canal to the point of showing us a section of the granite block walls he had been instrumental in building. Later I became aware of a similar heritage on my father’s side with one of our ancestors, John Trider, who operated one of the earliest granite quarries in Nova Scotia in Purcell’s Cove.

With an ancestry like that, it’s no wonder Chris Trider has a love for rocks and stones and why he still considers working with heavy and unforgiving masses of ore one of the best and most gratifying jobs around.

As a landscape architect in his earlier years, Trider used natural stone in several wall projects and has an “abiding love” for the material and when he talks about his River Denys site where he is currently quarrying marble, he almost ‘gushes’ with enthusiasm because “Nothing I have seen or used to date compares with the marble we now quarry.”

And that’s where this story begins because “nothing” does compare with Trider’s marble.

Historically, more than a billion years ago in fact, limestone beds that would eventually be transformed into Canada’s Marble (Trider’s trademarked brand name) were formed as part of a supercontinent far below the equator known as Rhodina. Geologists have created a model of continental drift whereby the continents move around the world through the process of plate tectonics.

As these continents collided, mountain ranges were formed in the process called an ‘orogeny.’ A small piece of these ancient mountains formed in the Grenville orogeny a billion years ago and have subsequently been found in the northern tip of Cape Breton Island. Canada’s marble was first deposited during the early Precambrian period.

At 515 million years ago, the small micro-continents that would form Nova Scotia were still moving around the earth’s surface and approximately 435 million years ago, the micro- continents came together to form Nova Scotia , which was by then located slightly south of the equator.

In the Carboniferous period, some 305 million years ago, the continents were once part of a single land mass called Pangea and present day Nova Scotia was still located south of the equator and at 50 million years ago, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton marbles were present at their present-day location.

Some of the world’s earliest life forms, stromatolites, are found in the Cape Breton marbles. These stromatolites have been dated at close to 1 billion years in marbles in nearby New Brunswick and these same marbles have been correlated with the marbles in Trider’s River Denys quarry.

Unlike most conventional marbles found around the world, Trider’s River Denys deposits are considered by many to be unique because of a range of colours from a signature “dark red,” to an unusual pattern of grays with rose/pink with yellows and blue undertones.

The “red” marble has been compared by experts to the antique marbles of Rome, many of which are no longer available in the world of natural stone.

The River Denys deposit is not a new find. In fact, it goes back to 1910 when the first record of a “red” marble deposit in Cape Breton appeared in the field notes of a local prospector, Hugo Carlson, as being “a prominent red marble outcrop.”

In the early 1960s, the Nova Scotia Government drilled a 300 m horizontal hole 175 m to the north of the outcrop and 50 m below it and intersects of a large zone of red marble. In the early 1980s, the further drilling of nine more holes and trenching confirmed the existence of a large marble deposit on the River Denys site.

Even though assays showed positive results, nothing was really done with the property until 2001-2002 when MacLeod Resources Ltd. and Chris Trider moved in to set up shop.

After carrying out a detailed Environmental Assessment and securing all the permits, followed by several years of setting up the quarry, an additional 6 x 200 m, 45 degree holes were drilled to determine the vertical extent, colour morphology of the deposit and the reserves along a zone 1000 m long by 500 m wide.

Trider says the site contains in excess of 82 million tons of coloured marbles including the “flagship,” dark red. In addition, he said the drill intersects shows signs of intricate breccias which are among the most highly prized marbles in the world of natural stone.

Quarry reserves are based on only one of three marble ridges that have been mapped on the lands owned by MacLeod Resources.

For the past two years MacLeod Resources has been working on a large, hill-top quarry structure with three vertical faces and has been quarrying to the 18 m level in the deposit. Trider says there are proven marble depths to more than 200 meters.

Mining the marble involves the use of proven Italian quarry techniques using drilling and diamond-wire technology. A large, open quarry structure has been established that allows for the rapid expansion to multiple faces to increase production and the quarry floor will be expanded vertically and horizontally to move from three to six operating faces.

Directional drilling equipment, and diamond wire saws are on site working on the expansion of the existing faces and increasing the vertical depth of the quarry. The company will soon be adding track-mounted chainsaws and an additional excavator to accelerate production as part of a significant capital expansion.

Once the marble has been mined, Trider says it’s just a short haul to the company’s on-site mill where it’s converted into five various products: Commercial Blocks, 20 tonnes ranging from 2.4 m to 3.2 m in length, 1.7 m to 1.9 m in height and 1.5 m to 1.7 m in width; Slabs, 2 cm or 3 cm thick. (One commercial block produces 45 to 60 slabs); Cut-to-Size Tiles and Mosaics, finished 12″x12,” 16″x16,” 18″x18″ and 24″x24″; and Custom Products, vanities, countertops and even grave markers; plus aggregates for crushed construction-material applications.

The MacLeod Resources’ River Denys property is truly a one-stop shop when it comes to marble products but what makes this operation even more newsworthy is that it’s a local Canadian company with a “red-hot” product that’s getting worldwide attention.

Proof of this interest came when MacLeod Resources recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Shairco for Industry, Trade and Contracting Co. Ltd of Jeddah, whereby they will invest $10 million in the company and become a partner in the Canadian operation and associate it with established processors and distributors in Saudi Arabia. Trider says they have already made their first investment and the partnership was officially announced at the recent Arabian Construction Week Fair in Abu Dhabi.