Origin & process

From quarry to shipment: how SUNMINERALS works

Origin in every layer.

SUNMINERALS supplies and processes natural stone for architectural, interior and commercial projects. Matka travertine and Sivec marble are quarried at Matka and Prilep in North Macedonia and the limestone comes from Croatia.

Blocks are processed at the Matka Factory in North Macedonia and exported through the Port of Thessaloniki in Greece. The commercial base is in Business Bay, Dubai.

It starts at the quarry face in North Macedonia and Croatia and ends at a finished surface: a façade, a lobby floor, a kitchen worktop. Three ideas hold it together. Origin, material and form.

A wide view across stepped white and cream quarry terraces around a turquoise pool, a mountain ridge and blue sky beyond
01

Origin

At the face

Good stone is chosen where it leaves the ground.

No two blocks are the same. Two cut from one quarry a season apart will read differently on a wall. So we select where the stone comes out of the ground, block by block, with your drawing already in mind.

Our sources are named and worked the same way year after year: travertine at Matka and marble at Prilep in North Macedonia, limestone from Croatia. More than fifteen years at the same faces means we can tell you how a stone will behave after years of weather and wear, not only how it looks as a sample.

Looking down on a freshly cut pale stone block on the quarry floor, a worker in a hard hat and hi-vis vest standing at its corner for scale
02

Material

Honed · Aged · Polished · Sawn Cut · Rockfaced

Finish is where a stone becomes a surface.

The same limestone can be quiet and matte, or bright and reflective. The same travertine can be filled and smooth, or left open to the touch. More than sixty finishing options run through our own factory, from sandblasted and bushhammered to tumbled. That is how a finish stays the same across a whole elevation.

We keep control from block to slab, from cut to finish and into the crate. It is the only way a second delivery still matches the first, whether that is the next floor of a hotel or the second bathroom of a house.

03

Form

To the drawing

The format follows the detail.

Blocks, slabs, tiles and cut-to-size pieces. We shape stone into whatever the drawing asks for: exterior and interior walls, floors, monuments, countertops, mosaics, fountains, pool capping, stairs and window sills.

Panels are sequenced from the block, so a façade or a feature wall reads as one continuous piece of geology. What leaves the factory is a set of parts that already know where they belong.

Origin, precision and lasting architectural value.

Explore materials

Operations

From the face to the finish.

Our production sits close to the quarries it serves. A block is cut, finished and inspected without ever leaving our own floor.

Owning the plant is what makes a finish repeatable. Nothing goes to a third party halfway through, so the block, the slab and the crate pass through the same hands.

Not all of it becomes architecture. The same extraction also leaves as raw material for industry.

Plant
Advanced vacuum systems · Safir 10+30 resin line · Marble gang saws · Fully automatic 14-head polishing machine · CNC bridge saw by Donatoni
Inside the stone processing hall under a high steel roof: yellow cutting and lifting machinery on the left, a long multi-head polishing line on the right and staff talking beside it

Quarries

Travertine
Travertine Matka QuarryMatka, North Macedonia
Marble
Marble Sivec QuarryPrilep, North Macedonia
Limestone
Croatian LimestoneCroatia

Production

Factory
Matka FactoryNorth Macedonia

Cutting, finishing and inspection happen on one floor. The machines, and the capacity they give us, are set out below.

At the source

The faces the stone actually comes out of.

Benched, wire-sawn and worked the same way season after season.

The quarry floor from above: an excavator beside freshly cut pale blocks, two workers in hard hats measuring a block, sawn faces rising on the right
Working faceBlocks are squared out of the bench before they are ever cut. This is where selection really begins.
A large yellow wheel loader carrying a huge raw stone block across the quarry floor under a blue sky
ExtractionOne raw block on the loader. Nothing else gives an honest sense of how large a block really is.
A quarry from directly overhead, cut blocks laid out in fields around the worked platform and haul roads curling through the scrub
From above
An aerial view of the wider quarrying region, a dozen pale worked terraces spread across wooded hills beside a settlement
The region
The production building from above, a long white hall with blocks stacked in the yard on one side and finished crates on the other
The production site
A block part-way through the gang saw, eighty blades standing in the cuts they have opened, two operators working at the frame

Production

From block to large-format slab.

Production is built around two gang saw machines, each with 80 blades. One is currently configured for 2 cm slabs, the other for 3 cm.

Blocks are selected, inspected and processed according to the material, finish, dimensions and programme agreed for each order.

Configuration adaptable for larger orders.

02
Gang saw machines
80
Blades per machine
2 / 3 cm
Slab configuration
A cut block opened out into a fan of parallel slabs at the end of the saw, each one still standing in the order it was cut
The block, openedA whole block comes off the saw in sequence. Keeping that order is what lets a wall be laid out later as one continuous face.
A single large marble slab hanging level on crane straps in the doorway of the production hall
Moved on strapsEvery slab is lifted level and carried on webbing. Most of the damage stone ever takes happens between machines, not in them.

Capacity

Production planned around the order.

21,875

m² per month

Current theoretical maximum

Figure indicates theoretical maximum, not guaranteed output.

Actual production is planned order by order.

What a month really holds depends on the block, the stone and the specification. So we confirm the programme for each order, and never quote it from a maximum.

Planned against

  • 01Block size
  • 02Stone type
  • 03Slab thickness
  • 04Machine configuration
  • 05Material availability

Confirmed for each order, material and specification.

The path

Select. Cut. Finish. Verify. Pack. Deliver.

Every order follows a defined path, shaped by the selected stone and the agreed specification.

It begins with choosing the material and the block. It moves through cutting and finishing, and ends with a final inspection, protective packing and a coordinated shipment.

One coordinated service, from material selection to final shipment.

The six stages of an order in one strip: material and block selection, cutting and dimensional control, surface treatment and finishing, sorting and appearance review, final quality inspection, and packing and export coordination
  1. 01

    Material + block selection

  2. 02

    Cutting + dimensional control

  3. 03

    Surface treatment + finishing

  4. 04

    Sorting + appearance review

  5. 05

    Final quality inspection

  6. 06

    Packing + export coordination

A yellow slab-handling gantry inside the processing hall, its row of vacuum lifters hanging over the yellow support arms and roller conveyors
Handling lineSlabs travel on vacuum heads and conveyors, not by hand, so the finished face is never set down on anything that could mark it.
A stack of pale limestone slabs hanging on crane wires beside a concrete frame under construction
DeliveredThe end of the path: the sequence arriving whole, in the order the elevation was set out.

Quality control

Controlled from block to final inspection.

Quality control begins before the first cut and continues throughout production. Blocks, slab thickness, dimensions, surface finish and final appearance are reviewed against the agreed requirements before packing and shipment.

A marble slab raised on the inspection frame with its whole face turned to the light, so the surface can be read end to end
A finished Sivec slab standing at the end of the line, its polished face checked against the slabs cut beside it

Inspection path

  1. 01Block inspection before cutting
  2. 02Monitoring during cutting and processing
  3. 03Surface review after finishing
  4. 04Dimensional and appearance checks
  5. 05Final inspection before packing and shipment

Specification protected from first inspection to final shipment.

Approval

The approved sample sets the standard.

An open sample box holding six stone chips in its tray, with two blank cards set out on the travertine surface beside it

Before production begins, the customer approves the selected material, finish and appearance. Production then follows those agreed specifications, with blocks and slabs selected and sorted to support consistency.

Formed by nature, so no two blocks read alike.

Because natural stone is formed by nature, subtle variation in shade, veining and pattern is expected. These differences are part of the material's character and are managed through careful selection.

  1. 01

    Sample approval

    Material, finish and appearance approved before production.

  2. 02

    Material match

    Production matched to the approved reference.

  3. 03

    Careful sorting

    Colour, texture and veining reviewed.

  4. 04

    Final check

    Completed order checked to specification.

Natural variation managed through selection, not treated as a defect.

Export

Protected, packed and coordinated for export.

SunMinerals coordinates final inspection, protective packing and international shipment according to the order and destination. Documentation, shipment planning and delivery schedules are coordinated as part of the order process.

Port of Thessaloniki

Greece

Primary export gateway for international deliveries

An open container loaded with wrapped stone standing in timber A-frames, the yard beyond it lit by low sun
ShippingInspected, packed and crated at the factory, then routed through Thessaloniki on the documentation and schedule agreed for the order.

Delivery control

Stone secured for export.

  • 01Order-specific export documentation
  • 02International delivery coordination
  • 03Order-specific packing system

What holds it together

15+
Years of expertise
60+
Finishing options
3.0 × 2.0 × 2.0 m
Maximum block processing size

Enquiries

Tell us what the project needs.

Send what you have: drawings, photographs of the space, the finish you like, the timing. The more we know, the more precise our advice.

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