ABOUT OUR CORALNatural ResourcesThe British Virgin Islands has great natural resources in the way of white sandy beaches, beautiful blue water, great sailing and great diving. But natural resources such as iron, coal and other minerals have never been present here. 100's of years ago, there was once a copper mine, but it is now only of archeological interest. However, the BVI does have one great (mineral) resource generally unavailable in colder climes: Fossil Coral. And we have found a way to make use of it to obtain the purest and creamiest material with which to bring our designs to life.Fossil CoralFossil Coral Rock is coral that has no living coral or remains of living coral on it when it is collected. It may be collected underwater or on the shore. To safeguard the environment of the BVI and ensure that we are ecologically correct, we collect all our coral from on shore ensuring that there is no danger to any living coral reef or living reef structure.To be technical, Fossil Coral Rock is the stony remains of polyps which lived anywhere from hundreds of years to millions of years ago. When white stony corals live and grow under the sea they form colonies, of many different types and shapes, and their bodies join together with a calcareous shell that is attached to its neighbor. Different species make different patterns and shapes as can be seen in the photographs below. These colonies form the reefs which today surround thousands of tropical islands. As time marches by pieces break off, fall to the bottom, more polyps grow on top and the reef consolidates.Fossil coral rock may then be found as whole pieces or, later on in time, enveloped in coral stone. Coral stone is formed when coral, rolled over the bottom of the ocean, is ground down into fragments as small as the finest sand and then time and pressure of layers above compress and harden the composite mixture into stone. Anegada, in the British Virgin Islands, has both loose and enclosed coral.