In later explosive eruptions of a volcano, the warm red Rochlitz porphyry was formed from the ash deposits. The term "porphyry" is historically known, generally used, but petrographically inaccurate. The color of the rock is reddish to red-violet, occasionally reddish brown to beige. Its structure appears grainy and is characterized by countless pore-like cavities (macropores). It is a tuff rock with rhyolitic rock fragments.[6]
This tuff rock has been used frequently throughout the region for almost a thousand years, including by master builders such as Arnold von Westfalen and Hieronymus Lotter; he had the Leipzig Old Town Hall and the Augustusburg built with it. In the recent past, it was used in the cladding of the Chemnitz town hall and the Peasants' War panorama near Bad Frankenhausen.
Previously, up to ten individual companies were active, but since 1879 the "United Porphyry Quarries on the Rochlitzer Berge" have been responsible for the economic mining of the rock, and since 1991 the last quarry has also been using blasting. For reasons of nature and landscape protection, the amount mined is limited.
The porphyry tuff of the Rochlitzer Berge was designated as one of the 77 most important national geotopes in Germany by the Academy of Geosciences in Hanover in May 2006. In 2012, the "Rochlitzer Porphyry" came fourth in a vote initiated by the Heinz Sielmann Foundation for the most beautiful natural wonder in Germany.