Markets and Industry

Canada’s production and consumption of dimensional stone are growing at a healthy rate. Paul Daniel has conducted a search across the world’s second largest country.

Paul Daniel

(Published on February 2007)

Pedro Oyhantçabal (a), Siegfried Siegismund (b), Karl-Jochen Stein (c), Jorge Spoturno (a)*

*(a) Depto. de Geología, Facultad de Ciencias Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225. (11400) Montevideo, Uruguay. E-mail: oyhantca@fcien.edu.uy - Tel: ++598 2 525 86 19. Fax: ++598 2  525 86 17

The biggest application of granite in most countries tends to be either in the construction industry or kitchen tops. Rare is the country where the biggest use of granite, measured in cubic metres or even value, is the tombstone industry. Poland is one such country.

Stone has been used to build churches and monuments in the three southern Caucasus republics since ancient times. Here we look at the decorative stones available today from quarries in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Report by Paul Daniel.

Living next to big countries has always been rather tricky anywhere but this is especially true in the South Caucasus.

Paul Daniel

With the remarkable growth in the economies of Latvia, Estonia and to a lesser extent Lithuania in recent years, the construction sector is seeing a lot of activity. Dolomite, used regionally for building castles, churches and manor houses since Medieval times, is still employed but its popularity has been completely overshadowed by imports of granite and marble.

Sandstone, as the name spells, is a rock formed of sand or quartz grains tightly pressed together and cemented by variety of materials like silica, iron, lime etc. The grain size, strength, kind of cementing material and compactness determine its density, permeability and the use. The colour of sandstone depends on cementing materials viz. ferruginous sandstone are red to brown, argillaceous are earthy to buff and generally white. Due to oxidation the ferruginous sandstone generally tend to change the colour from radish to brown buff, yellow and greenish.