Brown Marble Analysis: Dark Emperador

The Dark Emperador is a major marble in the natural stone market, going head-to-head with big names such as the Crema Marfil or the Carrara White. The Dark Emperador from Spain has gained international recognition as a reference brown marble due to its unique deep brown coloured background and amazing white vein.

It is today the most relevant brown coloured marble in the market. We present below some interesting facts about this marble:

Background

The Dark Emperador marble is explored by several quarries around the town of Yecla, with different exploration centres around Yecla, but also around the nearby towns of Caudete (Albacete province) and Jumilla (Murcia region). It is estimated that there are large reserves of this marble for future exploration.

The Dark Emperador enjoys today a comfortable and considerable market demand throughout the World. It is a popular marble for many years and its market implementation is mature in most of the markets.

Variations

The Dark Emperador is a dark brown coloured marble, with fine grain and some irregular and crossed lighter vein. It presents some occasional signs of calcite with small dimension. The Dark Emperador is a breccial type of stone. Its main variations depend normally on the different tonalities it may have (darker or lighter), but also on the amount of calcite (more or less).

There are currently about four different grades of Dark Emperador marble: First, Standard, Commercial and Classic. We will present here two of these variations, the First and Standard.

Finishings

The Dark Emperador accepts well only certain types of finishings, due to its very hard nature as a breccial natural stone. This marble can easily break if not transformed and handled properly. In all the finishings presented below, a protection net is used on the back of the stone.

– Polished: by far this is the most important and commonly used type of finishing. It is the one that highlights the amazing characteristics of this brown marble.

– Brushed: turns the Dark Emperador brown colour into a lighter colour, but adding a certain rustic look to the stone. It is recommended for anti-slippery applications.

– Bush-hammered: an interesting option, the bush-hammered finishing makes the surface of the stone quite rough, with a uniform coloured background.

Markets

The Dark Emperador has demand everywhere. If there is a local market for imported natural stones, then you will probably find the Dark Emperador. We present below the markets that are today considered the most important ones:

– China: by far the largest importer of Dark Emperador marble, mostly in block form. China probably holds the largest stock of blocks and slabs of this marble in the world.

– Middle East: it is hard to find an interior decoration / flooring project in the Middle East that does not include the Dark Emperador marble. A major market.

– USA: an important market for the import of standard tiles.

– Emerging economies: such as Russia or Brazil are growing consumers of this brown marble, specially for projects where the Crema Marfil is required.

Applications

The Dark Emperador is a preferential marble to be used on flooring applications. Here we can find amazing projects done in combination with other coloured marbles, such as the Crema Marfil, Rojo Alicante, Light Emperador and others.

It is also common to find applications of this marble on interior decoration, coverings, bath design and even some stonework.