On a recent flight from Las Vegas back to his home in Tennessee, Louwrens Mulder looked out of the window of the airplane to the desert below. He saw a swirling mixture of forms and colors - burnt golds and coppers, iron reds and cinnamon browns, sage greens and charcoal grays. It was strikingly beautiful, and familiar.

"It was a very clear sky, and I was looking down at the desert," he said. "I realized it looked just like the Africa Range stone - it's the same thing, yet different."

Mulder, along with his wife, Riana Mulder, are U.S. representatives of the Africa Range, a series of natural granite mined from - and closely resembling - the exotic deserts of Africa. Their son, Jaco Mulder, is the CEO of the company that mines the stone back in Namibia. Louwrens and Riana have lived in the United States since 2008 and are helping their son spread the word about their product. And they are passionate about it.

"The appeal of the colors is their warmth, their natural earthy tones," said Riana. "They are representative of the desert, with its movement and colors. There's definitely a connection back to the earth. And each pattern is absolutely unique. Two different kitchens done in African Ivory will have the same colors, but unique patterns."

African Ivory, with its soft beige and gold tones and speckles of darker gray, is one of the stones available in the series. Others include Silver Cream, with veins of blue-gray and creamy beige and gold; the bold African Fantasy, with lots of curving reddish-browns and deep grays; and seventeen other styles in a range of movement and color.

The journey of this exotic stone from beneath the African sands to the countertops, vanities, and floors of American homes and businesses starts years ago when Jaco was a boy. Louwrens has worked for many years in the stone industry, and Jaco was often around, so he developed an interest early.

"Jaco grew up around stone because of my work with it," Louwrens said. When he and his family first moved to the United States 12 years ago, Jaco stayed behind to attend college. "Then he began trading with granite and doing some exploration in Namibia. He started out at a young age as an entrepreneur and became very successful."

Left: Jaco Mulder (white T-shirt) surveys a working face at the Africa Range quarry in Namibia. They only use diamond wire saws during the excavation for better quality and to maximize yield. Above: A bookmatched African Ivory ventilation column, amongst many other Africa Range colors makes a bold statement at the Johannesburg Intl. Airport in South Africa where 25,000 sq. ft. of Africa Range was used.

Namibia is located in the southwest corner of Africa, with South Africa below and to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It was in the Namibian Desert east of the ocean near the port of Walvis Bay that Jaco began prospecting, sampling, and studying the stone beneath the desert sands. This was about ten years ago. Originally in partnership with G&L Marble who has done a great deal in marketing and promoting the Africa Range in the USA, Jaco obtained the mining rights in the area and submitted strict environmental plans required by the Namibian government. Eventually the first blocks from the Africa Range were quarried there.

Immediately, the rich colors and patterns of the stone caught attention, particularly in South Africa, where it is used in many homes and prominent commercial buildings. Desire for the stone grew quickly, not just in Africa, but in China, India, Australia, Italy, and the United States. Two processing plants - one in South Africa and another in Namibia - prepare the blocks and slabs for transport and apply a variety of finishes - polished, honed, flamed (rough), brushed, leathered, and others. At one point, he had 200-plus people working with him in the business.

People are drawn to the unique beauty of the stone and the durability of granite. In addition, natural stone in general is growing in popularity because it is seen as a pollution-free, natural product. Though it's not a renewable resource, when mined using best practices and conservation methods, natural stone is a relatively low impact product. It's one of the products that meet the requirements for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, the voluntary program established by the U.S. Green Buildings Council.

Preserving the environment, in particular the mystical, other-worldly landscape of the Namibian Desert, is important to the Mulders. One thing that brought Louwrens and Riana back to the United States was his invention of the Tomahawk Stone Splitter, which was born by the initiation of Jaco at the Africa Range and is now distributed by Braxton-Bragg LLC. The Tomahawk helps granite shops recycle their waste into a sought after building product.

"Did you know that only about 15% of what's mined ends up on the countertop?" Louwrens asked. Some of that waste is at the fabricator's shop, and some is at the quarries and processing plants. Reducing excess quarry waste is important to Jaco Mulder because of concern for the environment and because it makes the stone more affordable for the consumer.

"This is an exotic material, but the price is very competitive," said Louwrens. "That's because of good mining practices, so there is less waste, and because of the quality and durability of the material. No explosives are used at the quarries, only wire saws, so the recovery is much better."

Louwrens and Riana recently started a fivemonth tour of the United States to talk with potential distributors of the stone. While many fabricators, architects, and designers in the Southeast are familiar with the Africa Range because of its connection with G&L Marble out of Atlanta, professionals in the Midwest and the West are not as familiar with the product. The Mulders are eager to share the attributes of the Africa Range - its durability and longevity, its unique beauty, its low environmental impact, and the fact that new colors are still being discovered.

"Because this is a relatively new range, there's a lot of potential for growth," Riana said. "Fabricators or dealers who add this to their line are open to a lot of possibilities."

For more information about Africa Range, you can contact them by email at africarange.usa@africarange.co.za . Photos of the Africa Range products and the African desert can be seen at www.africarange.com .

A quarry workman standing on a dropped face cut with a single wire and weighing up to 800 tons, ready to be marked and cut into blocks destined for the multiple wiresaw.

Even unpolished, the raw granite reveals the beautiful colors buried under the Namibian desert sands.

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