Atashkouh White Travertine quarry (Mahallat City)

 

Location of the quarry

Shahab Sang Mining Industries has launched exploitation of this quarry in 1995. This quarry supplies a type of travertine which is undoubtedly of the highest quality among other travertine stones provided throughout the country. Atashkuh Quarry is located 3 km east of Nimvar City and 15 km east of Mahallat City. It is also 100 km away from Arak City. Over the past few years, Atashkuh Quarry has become one of the best and most active quarries of the country. A large number of quarries in this region have turned it to one of the travertine-producing centers in Iran.

Of quarries involved in travertine production in this region are Atashkuh, Takht e Mehdi, Abbas Abad, Haji Abad, Dareh Bokhari, Ali Abad and Abgarm. Among these quarries, Atashkuh (Bagh Malek) Quarry is indeed considered the best in terms of the quality of its travertine.

 

Quarry Products

The Quarry products are white and cream travertine blocks in varying proportions and weights (in metric tons), of different quality grades: grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, and grade 4.  

Quarry production, as per its exploitation permit, amounts to 50,000 metric tons a year of travertine blocks of different grades. The dominant method employed for exploitation is the wire saw mining method.

 

Geological Characteristics of the quarry

The travertine found in Mahallat region has been resulted from the activities of hot water springs. These travertine deposits’ manner of formation was influenced by physical and chemical phenomena or by evaporation. Water circulation allows carbon dioxide mixed with atmospheric waters find its way out, through earth cracks and openings, to the underground layers. As a result, rocks on the way are dissolved and later deposited as lime-forming springs on the ground surface. The constituent ore here is calcite (CaCo₃).

  

Quarry Office

At the corner of Moallem 5, Nimvar, Mahallet City, Markazi Province, Iran.