What is a quarry (banco de materiales) and how is it regulated in Mexico?

A quarry (banco de materiales) is, per the glossary of the Servicio Geológico Mexicano's (SGM) 2023 Anuario (2024 edition), an open-pit excavation for extracting stone material for the construction industry. It does not require a federal mining concession when the extracted rock can only be used for that purpose, under Article 5 of the Ley Minera.

Key facts

• SGM definition: "open-pit excavations for extracting stone material for the construction industry" (glossary, p. 502).
• Ley Minera, Article 5, sections IV and V, excludes that rock from the mining concession regime (amended, DOF 08-05-2023).
• LGEEPA, Article 7, section X, gives states environmental control over that use (amended, DOF 19-01-2026).
• Specific permits are set by state and municipal law, not a single federal procedure.
• Triturados Gramol produces stone aggregates with two plants, in Coahuila and San Luis Potosí.

What exactly is a quarry?

The SGM defines, in the glossary of its 2023 Anuario, a quarry as "open-pit excavations for extracting stone material for the construction industry." It is an operational definition, focused on the material's destination — construction — and the method — open-pit extraction — not on the type of mineral.

Very different sites in scale fall under that name: from a small extraction face to an aggregates plant with several working faces, producing stone material for public and private works in a region such as Saltillo and the rest of Coahuila.

The term shows up often in bids and construction projects — land development, paving, building — because almost any construction needs gravel, sand or base, and in most cases that material comes from a nearby quarry, not from an import from another region.

How does a quarry differ from a mining concession?

The difference is legal, not physical. Both can be open-pit excavations, but Article 5, sections IV and V, of the Ley Minera — as amended in the reform published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on May 8, 2023 — exempts from the law rock or its decomposition products that can only be used to manufacture construction materials, and decomposition products from rock when they are extracted by open-pit work.

A mining concession, by contrast, applies to minerals that do fall under the Ley Minera's regime: it means a title granted by the federal government, minimum work obligations and fee payments. The article on what mining is covers that distinction in more detail.

Who regulates the environmental impact of a quarry?

For rock that can only be used in construction materials, LGEEPA, in Article 7, section X (amended January 19, 2026), gives states control over the pollution generated by its use. That contrasts with concessioned mining, whose environmental regulation runs through federal channels.

In practice, this means a quarry in Coahuila answers to the state environmental authority, not to a federal mining agency. The specific conditions — what studies, what reports, at what frequency — are set by state law and its regulations.

What permits does opening a quarry usually require?

The specific permits are set by applicable state and municipal law, and vary by project, location and the surface area involved; this article does not replace that consultation. In Coahuila, the competent state environmental authority is the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente (SEMA), which confirms the exact procedure case by case.

Generally, a project of this kind requires, besides the corresponding state environmental permit, municipal land-use authorization and, if applicable, the landowner's or possessor's consent. None of these is equivalent to a federal mining concession.

How is a quarry restored once it closes?

Restoration is a stage planned before extraction even begins, as part of the project. In general terms, it usually includes regrading the slopes left by the excavation, to avoid unstable grades; removing temporary infrastructure, such as internal roads or stockpile areas; and recovering the site's vegetation cover.

The goal is to leave the land in stable condition and, where possible, return it to another use. The specific restoration obligations, like the opening permits, are set by the competent state and municipal authority for each project, and they typically apply progressively as extraction advances rather than only at the very end of the operation.

This sequence — planned extraction, operation and restoration — is what separates a formal quarry from an irregular extraction site. The final destination of the rock, in either case, remains the same: becoming gravel, sand, base or ballast for a construction project, a process detailed in the article on how a crushing plant works.

How does Grupo Server help?

Triturados Gramol, a Grupo Server company founded in 2003, produces stone aggregates — gravel, sand, ballast, base and asphalt surface course — with two operating plants, one in Coahuila and one in San Luis Potosí. You can review its product line on the Triturados Gramol page.

For a construction project that needs an aggregate supply, the rest of the group's operation is under the construction section, and specific questions are handled through the contact form in Saltillo, Coahuila.