THE arrival of an industrial chainsaw heralded a new era of mining operations on Portland.

Quarrying company Albion Stone has taken delivery of a Fantini saw - part of a £500,000 package of equipment to begin cutting stone underground.

Company operations director Tony Porter said the tungsten-carbide tipped dry cutting chainsaw will be able to cut 100 cubic metres of stone every week - on a par with quarrying operations on the island.

The saw, which was developed in Croatia and Italy, is one of three in the UK and is the most modern. The company has also bought a loading shovel to extract the material from inside the mine.

Mr Porter said the switch to mining would mean a new environmentally green phase in Portland's history.

He said: "You don't have to remove your overburden - you can leave green fields behind and people won't even know you're there.

"Now it's full steam ahead with the mining operation with the new machinery. There's no need to extract stone by any other method."

It took the company, which employs 60 people, five years to gain planning permission for mining operations, which will remove the need for blasting on the island. Mayor of Weymouth and Portland Les Ames cut the ribbon on the saw with quarry manager Mark Godden.

Mr Porter said that the company has completed an 18-month trial of mining at Bowers Quarry on Portland and will be shifting operations underground.

Albion Stone has been quarrying on Portland for more than 25 years.

"There will be a great deal of change from open quarrying to mining. It's a big transformation over the next 10 years," he added.

Some staff who had worked at the quarry were now fully qualified to remove stone in the underground operations, said Mr Porter, who added that many former quarrymen would be working in the mine.