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 Dimension Stones
Marble
Evolution
in building technology over the past 60 years has dramatically changed
the way in which granite and marble are used in building construction.
In older city buildings, the masonry walls were necessarily thick and
strong enough to support the upper floors. Advances in granite processing
technology, particularly developments in diamond sawing and computer control
systems over the last decade or so, have reduced the relative cost of
granite for use in domestic applications such as tiles and benchtops.
As a consequence granite has become an international commodity of some
importance, with ~16 Mt/year being mined around the world.
 Granite dimension
stone have distinctive red or pink colours due to abundant minute iron
oxide inclusions within the plagioclase and K-feldspar. The calcsilicate
metasomatite is variable in colour, and composed of a syn- to post-metamorphic
alteration mineral assemblage including pink-green albite and microcline,
actinolite, magnetite, haematite, quartz, epidote, dolomite, sphene and
pyrite, with traces of chalcopyrite and apatite. Marble deposits
have in the past provided ornamental and monumental stone from deposits
 Slate stones
Slate
is a term applied to many paving stones where the natural form is thin
planar slabs. Many of these should more correctly be referred to as ‘flagstone’,
and the term ‘slate’ reserved for fine-grained metasedimentary
rocks which split into sheets thin enough to be used as roofing shingles.
Slate stone
is well suited for paving, panelling, floor tiles and for high-quality
slate in architectural work. Full size, single piece billiard tabletops
are a specialty.
Dimension Stones Occurances in Zambia
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