In this episode, we will introduce you to a very popular limestone from Portugal called Fatima limestone.

Fatima is one of the hottest limestones in Portugal at the moment, which has seen an incredible growth in demand in the past few years. It is today one of the most relevant export-oriented limestones in the country.

The Fatima limestone first came to the market as a marginal limestone with limited supply. At first, it was considered a modest alternative to the well-known Moleanos limestone. With the development of some large quarries, blocks extraction increased considerably, flooding the market with a range of selections. The Fatima is today, a very respected limestone.

This is a white colored limestone, tending towards light beige, showing fine to medium grain and quite uniform background. It presents a very uniform structure, but some occasional thin calcite lines and some darker brown spots. The Fatima is today one of the most uniform limestones in Portugal.

Its variations depend on the grain structure and wether it shows a vein cut or cross cut structure. There are also some variations showing a bluish color and some color mix. There are numerous variations of this limestone, but the most relevant ones would be the Fine grain, which shows a very delicate structure and quite uniform background and color. There is the Medium grain variation, also known as Classic, which presents a medium grain structure, slightly darker beige color and a less refined look. Finally, there is the Vein-cut variation, which shows a beautiful parallel vein that contrasts with the typical grain structure of the Fatima.

The Fatima is an extremely versatile limestone that can accept most types of surface finishes. In addition to the polished or honed surface finishes, which are most commonly used on flooring, wall coverings and cladding, we can also find other surface finishes that are very suitable for this limestone, such as the bush-hammered, showing strong roughness, the sandblasted, showing a delicate roughness, split-face, chiseled, just to name some.

The Fatima limestone has seen an incredible growth in demand in the past several years, mostly due to demand from China mostly for blocks, which still represents the bulk of the export market. However, new markets have been popping up such as the cladding market in the Middle East or Russia, as well as the tiles market in the USA and Canada, and of course Europe, where the limestone has an interesting market.

This is a limestone to consider for years to come, in particular for the alternative selections of the Fatima limestone, which are widely available in quantity.

That´s it for today, on our podcast about the beautiful Fatima limestone from Portugal. If you need know more information about this Portuguese limestone, visit our blog on www.naturalstone-outlet.com/blog.
You can also check our Natural Stone Outlet youtube channel, where we have some videos where we introduce you to this limestone.
Thank you for listening!

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