BGS Industrial minerals geologist Clive Mitchell ventured to Brazil for the Global Stone Congress where he made many new friends, saw some amazing geology and learnt approximately 12 words of Brazilian Portuguese…
Ola! (there that’s the first word!) Towards the end of April I was lucky enough to travel the 6000 or so miles to Brazil to take part in the 6th Global Stone Congress in the coastal resort of Ilhéus in the north-eastern state of Bahia.
I was an invited speaker at a conference I had never heard of, in a place I’d never been and with people I didn’t know. Yes you may have picked up a little apprehension. It wasn’t the presentation I was worried about (I actually enjoy that bit) but the travelling to a big, new, slightly scary sounding place. Anyway I went, otherwise this would be a very short blog…
The Precambrian Macarani pegmatite is hosted in a metavolcanosedimentary sequence of banded and strongly folded biotite paragneiss. The pegmatite is mostly coarsely crystalline feldspar and quartz often displaying graphic texture, with occasional crystals of aquamarine and beryl. Both the pegmatite and host rocks are worked as dimension stone by Ouro Campo.
An important phrase to learn for those tea drinkers out there: chá com leite frio, por favour or tea with cold milk please (not that you will get black tea of course, you’ll need to take that out with you I learnt!).
The congress social programme introduced me to the three C’s: Caipirinha (the Brazilian national drink), Capoeira (a form of mock-fight dancing) and Cerveja (beer of course, I knew that one as I am a geologist after all!).
The 6th Global Stone Congress took place from 27th to 29th April 2018, and was followed by two days of dimension stone quarry visits. Further information: www.globalstonecongress2018.com.br/ing/
Obrigado e tchau!
 |
| Clive presenting at the Global Stone Congress |
Ola! (there that’s the first word!) Towards the end of April I was lucky enough to travel the 6000 or so miles to Brazil to take part in the 6th Global Stone Congress in the coastal resort of Ilhéus in the north-eastern state of Bahia.
I was an invited speaker at a conference I had never heard of, in a place I’d never been and with people I didn’t know. Yes you may have picked up a little apprehension. It wasn’t the presentation I was worried about (I actually enjoy that bit) but the travelling to a big, new, slightly scary sounding place. Anyway I went, otherwise this would be a very short blog…
En route (Nottingham – Heathrow – Sao Paolo – Ilhéus) I met some other delegates who quickly became my new best friends and were pretty much in the same boat as me (in the sense they were new to this, not an actual boat). Thirty hours after leaving home I arrived at the conference venue, the Jardim Atlantico Beach Resort in Ilhéus, approx. 800 miles NE of Sao Paolo.
Over the next 4 days I got to know everyone at the conference, was made to feel very welcome and quickly became part of the natural stone family. We took over the resort for a week – the conference venue was a marquee set up in the grounds. A large rain cover was hastily set up when the rain proved too much for the marquee (yes it rained every day, typical!)
 |
| The beach at the Jardim Atlantico Beach Resort in Ilhéus |
The Global Stone Congress has been held every few years since 2005, when it was first held in Brazil as the International Congress on Dimension Stone. The objective is to gather internationally renowned natural stone experts in order to share knowledge, promote technical cooperation and discuss the latest advances in the industry. Since 2005 it has travelled to Italy (2008), Spain (2010), Portugal (2012) and Turkey (2014).
The 2018 congress attracted 165 delegates from 11 countries – 70% from Brazil with the remainder mostly from Portugal, Italy and Spain, and a small representation from Chile, the Czech Republic, Finland, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and one from the UK (me!). For my part, I gave a presentation on ‘Dimension stone in the United Arab Emirates’ – the UAE is an important market for natural stone in the Middle East and is one of the largest importers per capita in the world. It also has the potential to produce its own natural stone. It has mountains of limestone resources equal to that imported from neighbouring Oman.
After the conference, we spent a couple of days visiting dimension stone quarries, which turned out to be a very long way from Ilhéus! The state of Bahia it turns out is twice the size of the UK, with a quarter of the population.
The blue granite of Potiraguá is a sodalite-rich syenite worked as a dimension stone by Somibras and marketed as ‘Azul Bahia’. This is probably the most famous naturally blue stone from Brazil. I have come across it in use in the new terminal building at Dubai International Airport.
 |
| Field trip delegates at the Macarani pegmatite dimension stone quarry |
An important phrase to learn for those tea drinkers out there: chá com leite frio, por favour or tea with cold milk please (not that you will get black tea of course, you’ll need to take that out with you I learnt!).
The congress social programme introduced me to the three C’s: Caipirinha (the Brazilian national drink), Capoeira (a form of mock-fight dancing) and Cerveja (beer of course, I knew that one as I am a geologist after all!).
The 6th Global Stone Congress took place from 27th to 29th April 2018, and was followed by two days of dimension stone quarry visits. Further information: www.globalstonecongress2018.com.br/ing/
Obrigado e tchau!
Comments