Tuesday, September 23, 2003

The Place to Go for Porphyry - By BOB QUICK

Obtaining porphyry used to be an expensive process of importing the heavy stone from a quarry in Europe.

That’s all changed with the opening of Milestone Imports, a Santa Fe company founded by Miles Chafee that has exclusive distribution rights for Mexico Porphyry Stones, owned by Italian quarry operator Mondial Porfidi.

Chaffee also owns Milestone Stone and Tile Resource Center at 1000 Cordova Place.

Mondial has a large operation in San Luis de la Paz, in central Mexico, and offers a selection of color and sizes of porphyry.

Porphyry, by the way, is a natural stone, similar to granite, that has been used for 3,000 years to build roads, among other things.

In Santa Fe, the new St. Francis Cathedral entryway was recently redesigned and rebuilt to include a 36-foot porphyry labyrinth modeled after the one at the cathedral in Chartres, France. The labyrinth includes a total of 752 green and 864 red/grey porphyry stones from Milestone Imports.

Other projects using the company’s porphyry include Milner Plaza at Santa Fe’s Museum Hill; the Main Street project in East Jordan, Utah; and the Santa Lucia preserve in Carmel, Calif.

For more information contact Milestone Imports at 989-1999.

Milestone's growing list of exclusive represented companies and products that include:

Mexico Porphyry and Stone - Mexico - an Italian owned porphyry quarry in north central Mexico.
Mondial Porfidi International, Italy - Mexico quarried Porphyry pavers
CRG Group, Lakewood, Ohio - Chinese slates, quartzite, granite and marble
Oceanside Glass Tile, California - Handmade quality 85% recycled glass

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