Carrara marble 1
The famous Carrara marble is not only a symbol of luxury. The site has especially become one of the high places of calcium carbonate extraction, used in particular in the manufacture of toothpastes. An industrial exploitation that disfigures the landscape and is accompanied by deaths on construction sites, pollution and resource grabbing by a local elite and international actors, including the bin Laden family and the Swiss multinational Omya.
The whiteness of the place is misleading. From a distance, the quarries of Carrara recall the contours of a glacier. Approaching, it is a mining basin that spreads before our eyes, an off-white tablecloth laid on the flanks of the Apuan Alps. On this summer day, dozens of trucks loaded with rough marble blocks crisscross the mountains devoured by diggers. In these steep paths, our 4x4 vehicle struggles to climb to the Michelangelo quarry, where marble statuario is extracted, one of the most expensive, sold up to 4,600 francs per ton.
Here a dozen workers are busy under a blazing sun. Riccardo, 52, including thirty in the Tuscan quarries, tackles a block of marble with a diamond wire saw. The heat is stifling. "In summer, the yard is a real furnace. In winter, it is cold and wet, "blows the son and grandson of a miner. He explains with pride what his job is, before concluding: "I hope, however, that my son will do something else in life."
High risk work
In careers, despite the efforts made in recent years, security is not flawless. On July 11, a block of marble stored in a warehouse collapsed with Luca Savio, 37, father of a little boy. A few weeks earlier, in May, another worker lost his life, Luciano Pampana, 58, crushed by a digger. "The slaves continue to shed their blood in Carrara," exclaimed Father Raffaello during his homily: "The Apuan Alps have been savagely scarred and if not many have taken advantage, some have become very rich!"
"Slaves continue to shed their blood in Carrara"
Don Raffaele, priest of Carrara
