Rajasthan is famous for its marble deposits. There are around 4000 marble mines and about 1100 marble cutters in medium sector spread over the 16 districts of Rajasthan. Marble slurry is generated as a by-product during cutting of marble. The waste is approximately in the range of 20% of the total marble handled. The amount of marble slurry generated in Rajasthan every year is very substantial being in the range of 5-6 million tonnes.

The marble cutting industries are dumping the marble slurry in any nearby pit or vacant spaces, near their unit although notified areas have been marked for dumping. This leads to serious environmental and dust pollution and occupation of vast area of land especially after the slurry dries up. This also contaminates the underground water reserves.

 

What is marble slurry?
While marble blocks are cut by gang saws, water is used as a coolant. The blade thickness of the saws is about 5 mm and normally the blocks are cut in 20mm thick sheets. Therefore, out of every 25mm thickness of marble block, 5mm are converted into powder while cutting. This powder flows along with the water as marble slurry. Thus, nearly 20 % of the total weight of the marble processed results into marble slurry. The marble slurry has nearly 35%-45% water content. The total waste generation from mining to finished product is about 50 % of mineral mined.