Limestone & stone export glossary

Stone & material

Dimensional stone

Natural stone selected and cut to specific shapes and sizes (slabs, tiles, blocks) for building use — as opposed to crushed or industrial-grade stone.

Limestone

A sedimentary rock composed mainly of calcium carbonate. As a dimensional building stone it is workable, takes a polish or honed finish, and is used for flooring, cladding, countertops and carving.

Nimbahera limestone

A fine-grained dimensional building limestone quarried around Nimbahera in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, India — a warm beige-to-cream stone traded as Rajasthan beige limestone or Chittorgarh building stone.

Ground Calcium Carbonate (GCC)

Limestone micronised into a fine white powder, graded by particle size (mesh), used as an industrial filler in paint, plastics, paper, rubber and animal feed.

Calibration

Grinding the back of tiles or slabs to a uniform thickness (often ±0.5 mm) so they lay flat and fast with consistent joints.

Slab

A large flat piece of stone sawn from a block, typically 18–30 mm thick, used for flooring, feature walls and countertops.

Sett (cobblestone)

A small, roughly cubic paving stone, hand-split or machine-cut, used for driveways, plazas and streets.

Ashlar

Dressed (squared) stone blocks laid in courses; 'random coursed ashlar' uses varying course heights for a traditional wall.

Finishes

Polished

A high-gloss surface buffed to reflect light (90+ gloss units), maximising colour depth; common for luxury interiors.

Honed

A flat matte surface with no sheen — more contemporary than polished, hides wear better, popular for floors and countertops.

Leather

A lightly textured, low-glare surface created by wire-brushing or acid-washing, adding tactile character while resisting fingerprints.

Bush-hammered

A pitted, highly textured anti-slip surface produced by a mechanical bush hammer; specified for outdoor steps, ramps and pool edges.

Sandblasted

A fine-grained matte surface created by blasting the stone with abrasive, opening a subtle anti-slip micro-texture.

Tumbled

A worn, aged look produced by machine-tumbling stone to round its edges and surfaces; used for heritage and Mediterranean-style projects.

Split-face

A stone face left with its natural machine-split texture, with a sawn flat back for easy fixing; used for rustic veneer and cladding.

Processing & façade fixing

Gangsaw

A large multi-blade saw that cuts a stone block into multiple parallel slabs in one pass.

Kerf cut

A narrow groove sawn into the edge of a cladding panel so it can sit on support pins or rails in a façade fixing system.

Undercut anchor

A hidden mechanical fixing set into a CNC-drilled undercut hole on the back of a panel, giving the highest wind-load rating for high-rise façades.

Ventilated rainscreen

A façade system where stone panels are mounted on a subframe with an air gap behind, improving thermal and moisture performance; panels are replaceable.

Cut-to-size

Stone fabricated to a project's exact dimensions and details (edges, cut-outs) before delivery, so little or no on-site cutting is needed.

Standards & certification

EN 1469

The European standard for natural stone used as wall cladding; external stone cladding sold in the EU must be CE marked to EN 1469. See our certifications.

ASTM C170 / C97 / C99 / C241

US ASTM stone test standards: C170 compressive strength, C97 absorption & density, C99 modulus of rupture, C241 abrasion resistance.

CE marking

A conformity mark indicating an EU product meets health, safety and environmental requirements; for stone cladding it certifies conformity with EN 1469.

Declaration of Performance (DoP)

A document required under the EU Construction Products Regulation declaring a product's performance against the relevant harmonised standard.

Export & trade

FOB (Free On Board)

An Incoterm where the seller delivers the goods, cleared for export, onto the vessel; the buyer bears cost and risk from that point. MI Stones quotes FOB Mundra/Kandla as standard.

CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight)

An Incoterm where the seller pays cost, insurance and freight to the destination port; risk passes to the buyer once goods are loaded.

DAP (Delivered At Place)

An Incoterm where the seller delivers the goods to a named destination, ready for unloading; the seller bears risk to that point.

Incoterms

Standardised international trade terms (FOB, CIF, DAP, etc.) published by the ICC that define who pays for and bears risk over each stage of shipping.

FCL (Full Container Load)

A shipment that fills one container exclusively for a single buyer; stone is typically shipped in 20ft or 40ft FCL.

MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity)

The smallest order a supplier will accept; for MI Stones this is one 20ft container (about 25 tonnes), with mixed-product containers available.

IEC (Import Export Code)

A registration number issued by India's DGFT that a business must hold to export from India; MI Stones is IEC registered.

India-UAE CEPA

The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which removes import duty on qualifying Indian goods — including stone — entering the UAE.

HSN code

The Harmonized System of Nomenclature code classifying goods for customs; raw limestone falls under HSN 2521 and worked tiles/slabs under HSN 6802.