Etymology

To say that our porphyry is red colored could turn to be a redundancy or maybe a dialectic excess. Instead of, we could simply affirm that our products and the quarry from where they come from are made of “porphyry.”
Etymologically, the word porphyry comes from the Latin “porphyra,” which means “purple stone.” This terminology was utilized by Egyptians and Romans in order to assign a specific red volcanic stone that was much more resistant and harder than the granite itself.

History of Porphyry

This stone was formed 250 millions years ago as a consequence of the solidification of magma. In the old world, the material was known as “Imperial Red Porphyry” and it was considered by the Egyptian and Roman civilization to be a symbol of prestige and distinction. Therefore, the “porphyra” (or “lapis porphyrites” as the Romans used to call it) was reserved only for imperial residences and the Emperors that, as personifications of divinity, were born and lived in palaces covered with porphyry and were buried in sarcophagus made of the same material.
That stone not only had a symbolic and esthetic meaning but also an immense value for construction. Because of its physic characteristics and the cohesion of the minerals that formed it, the stone was almost eternal even under the most adverse climatic conditions.
Those old and unique “porphyra” quarries that were found in the proximities of the Jebel Dhokan Mountain in the Egyptian Desert were submitted by the Romans to an intense exploitation with thousands of workers that quickly depleted the natural resource in a few decades of extraction.

Porphyry from Trento and the arrival of the chromatic diversification:

Because of its excellent performance the utilization of the porphyry as an element of construction was incremented and popularized all over Europe throughout the centuries. During the 20th Century, the porphyry utilized was exclusively from Trento, which was extracted from the Trentino-Alto Adige Region (Italy) mainly because there were not similar explorations in other parts of the world.
Having been the porphyra quarries totally or partially depleted in the north of Italy, the extraction and commercialization of porphyry with other colorations such as gray, brown, or mix got started. Even though that coloration was not genuine porphyry from a historic perspective, it was still porphyry from a geologic point of view because those volcanic stones of chromatic diversity assembled the same minerals and the same physical and chemical characteristics than those obtained in the old Egyptian Desert.

Extra-European Porphyry

The environmental problems in the Italian provinces of Trento and Bolzano, the gradual and evident depletion of the natural resources, and the constant evolution of the growing world market of the porphyry have driven during the last three decades the research, extraction, and exploitation of new fields of porphyry around the world.
According to the research that was started and sponsored by the entrepreneur sector of Italy, there were found in the Patagonia Argentina vast and productive fields of material that enjoyed the same or even higher quality than the original porphyry from Trento, Italy. The chromatic diversity included colors such as gray, brown, violet, and mix, but the precious red color was still absent.
Other exploitations were tried in Guanajato, Mexico where a natural and red colored stone with similar structure than porphyry was found, but not exactly the same geologically speaking.
At last and as a possible place for establishments of porphyry quarries, there have been initiations of exploitation in the areas of Yads in the center of Iran, having found red porphyry but very compact and not in the form of slab.

The porphyry from Patagonia Stone S.A. The pure red porphyry that is extracted from our quarries situated in the Patagonia Argentina shares the same geologic, chemic, physic, and chromatic characteristics than that “porphyra” which was the most utilized and valued for construction in the Roman and Egyptian cultures. The discovery of the rich quarry of Patagonia Stone S.A. has probably completed the intense and sacrificed research initiated by the Italian entrepreneurs three decades ago. The quarry is unique in the Argentinean territory and also the biggest in volume of production in the whole world. Our “Pórfido Rojo Patagónico” that has been commercialized in Europe and part of Asia under the name of “Rosso Siena” not only is unique because of its chromatic stamp but also because its quality of “paste” that compose it, composition that allows a superior quality of cut and a better eloquence in its final result.

Chemic Composition

70% of oxide silica, 12% oxide alumina, 6% oxide potassium, and little percentiles of iron oxide, sodium, calcium, and magnesium.

Mineral Composition

40% of quartz and numerous feldspars submerged in glassy paste.