The qualification of stone products in the global market: the example of Verbano Cusio Ossola

The province of Verbania has almost 300 firms involved in natural stone exploitation and processing fields. In fact the Verbano Cusio Ossola (VCO) dimension stone quarry basin is rich in stone resources, used both in the past for important buildings and monuments (Milan Cathedral, Pavia Cathedral, San Paolo fuori le mura in Rome) both nowadays, for instance in the Malpensa, Frankfurt and Singapore airports. The geological setting of this area is characterized by complex processes which are strictly linked to the presence of a large variety of stone materials: gneiss (beole and serizzi), granites (white granites, green granite and pink granite), metapelites (Verde Vogogna) and marbles (Candoglia marble, Ornavasso marble and Crevola marble). In view of a possible introduction in the global market of stone similar in aesthetical properties to the VCO ones, researches like Interreg-OSMATER and DIADI project have been undertaken with the goal of underlining the univocal characteristics of VCO ornamental stones. Through these research projects, that will lead to a “new life” the ancient and historical quarries and that will study the evolution both of quarries and transformation plants, the quality of the materials exploited will be qualified and the historical routes of the local dimension stones commercialisation will be revised. The paper underlines the main steps of this complex work, together with the most significative and univocal properties of the VCO stones.