Mechanical drilling of holes into rock during quarrying or stone work.
Foration or forage is the mechanical drilling of a hole into rock using a hammer drill, perforator, drill rig, or related equipment. In quarrying, drilled holes may be used for splitting, extraction, anchoring, or other operations that determine how sculptural blocks are won from the rock.
Etymology
French technical quarrying vocabulary; forage means drilling.
References
https://www.pierres-info.fr/glossaire/index.html