Evaluation of the Portuguese Ornamental Stone Resources

Portugal produces a great diversity of ornamental stones. Besides the internationally known white and pink marbles, also light cream limestones are produced, as well as grey, yellow and pink granites, and dark grey slates. A first exercise is presented on the evaluation of the available resources of ornamental stones in the whole Portuguese territory. The results show a total availability of 410 million cubic meters, of which 274 million refer to granite, 76 million to limestone, 51 million to marble, and 9 million to slate.