Albion Stone Quarries, one of the two companies extracting the famous limestone from the Dorset island of Portland, has blasted the rock from the face of a quarry for the last time.

The move follows the company\'s investment in jet belts and wire saws that enables them to cut the stone from the face, which reduces waste as well as keeping the neighbours happy.

The last blast took place on 5 September in Bowers uarry and Andrew Price, head of planning of Dorset County Council\'s Environmental Services Directorate, was invited along to ceremonially detonate the explosives for the last time.

Blasting has been used in the extraction process for the past 50 years and Pat George, Albion\'s production director, said: "Blasting is a very effective way of dislodging the stone from its natural bed. However, it does have the possibility of damaging the stone we are seeking to produce, therefore reducing the yield.

"And even the most carefully designed blast will create a certain amount of nuisance to local residents. I think it was clear from discussions with local groups and the community that changes in the extraction process needed to take place on Portland."

George said the introduction of the new quarrying techniques had been technically challenging and had involved a considerable investment, not just in machinery but also in man-hours over many months.

"However," he added, "the environmental benefits will be extremely significant and will result in reduced noise, dust and, most importantly, the complete elimination of ground and air vibration."

Albion felt the developments in quarry extraction processes that had taken place in major stone producing areas such as Carrara in Italy, famous for its marble, should be implemented on Portland because the environmental benefits had become too great to ignore.

Michael Poultney, Albion\'s managing director, said: "We feel it is our duty as a responsible quarrying company to implement changes that would produce significant environment improvements to the Island.

"The cessation of blasting in all of Albion\'s quarries and the acquisition of the jet belts and wire saws form part of our continuous investment to ensure the adoption of modern stone extraction methods that respect the environment and community."

Another part of the environmental improvement is taking stone extraction underground, rather than removing the stone from open quarries, and Albion are moving towards using room and pillar mining on the island.