You'd have better luck using an adamantine saw blade since it would ignore the marble's hardness entirely without the need for high-speed movement. Barring that, spells that directly manipulate the stone, such as fabricate, come to mind.
As for a permanent solution, a custom-crafted magic item might be more in keeping with the concept than a spell with permanency. The latter has pretty specific restrictions and is quite expensive. A custom item, statted appropriately, would likely not be that expensive--certainly cheaper than, say, a lyre of building.
One thing i would avoid is applying "I have a modern understanding somewhat of industrial practices" to a fantasy game.
PF and its predecessors have wholly avoided anything related to the practical application of magic to every day life. This seems deliberate although im not really sure the reason for it, although it is possibly better than the reverse used by games like rolemaster which had spell lists for child birth.
My guess is that Adamantium can be used to accomplish anything that Diamunds are used for industrially in rl. However there is probably not enough of it to fulfill industrial roles.
I would just suggest, The Marbl quary use a Modified version of soften earth and stone or stone shape.
soften earth and stone if it had the ability to be shaped would let you extract marble probably far fastern than any modern industrial process.
I am not sure that I understand as they have been using marble since ancient times.
How did they mine it then before the industrial revolution?
That would be your answer. I am not an expert but I do know that there are 3000 to 4000 year old marble items still in museums and such.
How was marble mined historically?
If the ancient Romans and Greeks were able to mine marble in mass quantities, obviously high-speed motors and diamond-bladed saws weren't necessary. What they used, IIRC, is wooden wedges that were then soaked in water to expand, breaking off blocks.
If you've got magic to help you, stone shape was basically made for this purpose.
Adamantine Blades is a good idea, but I'd rather there be craftsmanship involved. I don't want "Poof, here's your statue."
Adamantine just cuts through the stuff. It still requires labor and some skill to cut the slabs, and making the statue would require every bit as much Craft skill as it would using classical tools. It'd just be faster.
Magic is going to lean toward "poof, here's your statue", though even good transmutation solutions such as fabricate still require the Craft check for the resulting product to actually be well-crafted. Otherwise, you end up with an ugly lump of marble or David with his arms sticking out of his sides. Stone shape would be good enough to get the slabs at least but would be of no help in making a high quality item once the materials are extracted.
I am not sure that I understand as they have been using marble since ancient times.
How did they mine it then before the industrial revolution?
That would be your answer. I am not an expert but I do know that there are 3000 to 4000 year old marble items still in museums and such.
The OP seemed focused on trying to do modern industral mining. Thus the diamond laced saws and the need to move the saws faster than manpower can provide.
Marbles been one of the most heavily used constructive materials for anything important for thousands of years.
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If you follow the standard ratio of characer levels distributed in most game worlds, it is unlikely that a town with a single economic source is likely going to have the people who can repeatedly cast animate object etc.
That said, 1 stone shape cast to target specific locations in a quary to create cracks followed by wholly mundane labour would probly speed the quarrying process up considerably.
In the documentaries I have watched about making the pyramids the slabs were mined using hammer and chisel and then fractured thermally to separate them from the final face. That being said a lot of modern mining can also be done with explosives, would there not be a magical way of reproducing these explosions? If all else fails, ask the dwarves how they do it.
Explosives don't work well for marble quarrying. (It's been tried -- repeatedly -- and found wanting. Damages the marble. Not as big an issue when you just want ore that you're going to grind to dust anyway, but you don't want your marble pre-smashed.)
I'm still wondering why good old fashioned brute force and ignorance aren't sufficient to keep the town afloat. I mean, it's not like there weren't quarry towns in ancient Greece/Rome.
Adamantine seems to be 'too easy' a solution, plus it is extremely rare. What about mithril blades?
Would Animate Object work in regards to hooking the blade up to a gear and animating the gear so it turns and therefore makes the blade saw in and out?
That's an interesting approach. And it can be made permanent (relatively) cheaply at 1,000 gp per unit, if I'm reading the writeup correctly.
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Dig 1 tiny hole in the marble put a wedge in it
Dig another put a wedge in it
Do this in a line
Tap the wedges more or less at the same time 1 2 3 3 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 1
Will crack just about anything.
What Orfamay Quest said... the Romans, Greeks and anybody who built structures of marble in anceient times did not need diamond saws, nor steam engines. Hand-saws work fine. Marble is actually extremely soft as far as cutting it goes - slave labor works just fine for cutting stone, and cheaper to operate than a steam engine.