Granite Introduction Part 1 – What is Granite and where it is found?

Granite is a coarse grained igneous rock which forms as a result of slow cooling of magma in great depths, which allows formation of large, visible interlocking crystals which gives its speckled appearance.

Granite come in various colors including but not limited to white, pink, gray, brown, red, which depends on its mineral composition. Three main minerals that make up granite are quartz, feldspar and mica. The first is responsible for strength and durability, the second is the main ingredient contributing to its color and overall structure and mica contributes to its shining and texture.

In addition to its beauty and strength, granite is also a very durable stone. It is very resistant to heat, weathering, scratches. Because of this, it found a lot of uses in construction, where it is used in many instances and applied on a wide variety of surfaces for both structural and aesthetical purposes, both indoors and outdoors. The compressive strength of granite typically can be around 200 MPa, which is far higher than regular common purpose concrete, which varies in strength of anywhere between 20-40 MPa.

Granite is often present in mountain cores where once molten magma was present which then cooled. Dynamic tectonic forces and geological formations trigger these movements which means granite is available in almost any region of the world with mountain ranges. Because of this large scale availability, granite is the most widely used natural stone in scale.

Granite production by country:

China leads the world in granite production. Other notable countries in granite production are: India, Brazil, Türkiye, United States, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Russia. Among these Türkiye could probably be ranked as in 4th place after China, India and Brazil, with known reserves of up to 10% of the world.