Are there quarries in the game? Certainly not a necessity but might be something different to use instead the the usual.
There are a limited number of people who have made shots at what might be considered a quarry.. at least in the "mining" sense.. names that pop to my mind are PEG, Fukuda, .. maybe some props by JRJ .. etc.. sorry I can't give you more details.. I know of noone who has made just an old quarry top structure.. I expect you may want to play with some of the terrain mods and water plops.. you can probably make very passable ones in your city by using well-chosen mods..