Low block recovery in dimensional stone quarrying is commonly associated with complex fracture systems and inconsistent decision-making across the extraction chain. An integrated decision-support workflow is presented, linking rock-mass characterization and extraction planning. It combines discrete fracture network (DFN) modelling with block usability assessment and staged decision gates to reduce structural uncertainty. Application of the framework across seven-dimensional stone quarries indicated relative improvements ranging from approximately 8–12% in commercial block recovery compared with conventional quarrying approaches. These improvements were associated with enhanced fracture characterization, improved selection of extraction orientations, more effective assessment of block usability, and NDT-supported quality control.
Bui et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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