Kris, our team member from Bulgaria, visited a marble quarry and a marble plant. Let's visit the Marble Plant with Kris!
     When I began this project, I didn't know anything about mines or mining.  I didn't know what I could do to help the team with the project but I finally decided to make a trip video.  During our spring holiday, my father, mother, baby brother and I went to Berkovitsa where there was a quarry and a marble plant.  
    The quarry was interesting. There were a lot of marble blocks in many colors like gray, white, and pink.  In my opinion, the pink marble is the most beautiful. It looks as if it is colored artificially but it’s not. Nature has created it so shiny and lovely. 
     From there, we called the president of the marble plant and asked permission to take videos.  He told us it was all right and he would send a worker with us so that everything could be explained.  It was good to have someone go with us because it can be dangerous in plants and factories and they wouldn't want people wandering around alone.
    Marble has to be cut into different sizes depending on what it is going to be used for.  Giant saws are used for this.  There is a lot of dust in the plant.  The saw has water spraying on the blade as it cuts.  This keeps the dust from flying around and it cools off the saw blade. The blade gets very hot as it cuts.
    There are steel rope cutters outside of the plant.  These cut the giant pieces of marble into smaller slabs.  These slabs are cut again into sizes that they need for different products.  The workers know what the marble will be used for before it is ever cut.
    The plant is very noisy because of the cutting machines.  There are a lot of them. 
    Then the marble is polished so that it has a very nice surface.  Marble is used in lots of things.  It can be used in kitchen countertops that are shiny and smooth.  Marble plants make it this way. 
    The continuous belt machine is used for polishing.  Many slabs of marble can be fed into the machine.  The pieces are pushed out of the machine and down a conveyor to a place where they are taken off. 
     Sometimes marble is sold in sheets and blocks.  Sometimes it is formed into shapes.  This plant sells a lot of their marble to the United States. 
    It was interesting to see the 'fences' made of marble.  These were smooth and would last a long time because marble is very strong.  Marble lasts a long time even if it is out in the weather.
    While we were at the plant, we saw different kinds of vehicles.  The first ones we saw were a big dump truck and a crane. The truck was coming from the quarry. It was loaded with marble blocks. The crane lifted the marble blocks from the truck and moved them to one end of a big yard.