International Coverage

Distinctive granite from the quarries of Brazil

Brazil Stone Corp. was created in January 2000 in Carlstadt, NJ, as a distributor of Brazilian stones, specializing in slabs, tiles and cut-to-size materials. In March 2002, however, the firm took a major step, as it decided to open a sister company in Brazil to specifically invest in the country's rich reserve of natural stone resources.

After deciding to expand, the company invested in quarries in MaracÃ¡s, Bahia, Brazil, due to the characteristics and potential quantities available. The company reports that its feature stones, which include Verde Riviera, Verde Esmeralda and Verde Caribbean, offer optimum function, durability and versatility.

Stone is extracted from the quarry with a broad range of large-scale machinery, including excavators, a backhoe, diamond wire saws, pneumatic drills and various compressors and generators. In total, the company has 15 employees working in the quarries, and production is 10,000 cubic meters per year.

After stone is quarried, slab processing takes place at a local factory in Vitoria. This factory is equipped with four gangsaws from Gaspari Menotti of Italy, which represent the most current generation of technology. The resulting raw slabs are then polished with a Levibreton KG 3000 from Breton of Italy. This polisher features bridge travel speed of up to 60 meters per minute. Additionally, it is equipped with a system that ensures the raising and lowering of the heads in split seconds with minimal movement at the entry/exit of slabs. This guarantees better processing of the slab sides and a higher working speed. The machine has 21 polishing heads, and it is equipped with abrasives from Tenax S.p.A. of Italy. There is also a Breton waxing unit, and automated machinery for slab loading and unloading. The typical finished slab size is 125 x 80 cm.

In all, the company exports 360,000 square feet of finished stone to the U.S. each year. A total of 60% of the firm's business comes from the U.S., followed by Canada, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, each of which consume 10% of the company's production.

Sidebar

Verde Riviera granite
technical specifications

water absorption 0.14%
apparent porosity 0.37%
dry density 2.68 kg/cu.cm
compression breaking load 3.03 Mpa
bending test 22.37 Mpa

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