We have the
best and biggest garnet mine in Australia
Almandine garnet mineralisation at
Ireland’s Quarry
Ireland’s Quarry is situated on the sparsely
vegetated, undulating plains of Thackaringa
Station. The quarry occurs in a retrograde shear zone of the
Proterozoic Willyama
Complex with a surface expression that is predominantly
obscured by clastic quartz. The
shear zone has undergone deformation and metamorphism to
lower amphibolite facies,
with a significant influx of hydrothermal fluids due to the
breakdown of mica under
these conditions (Doyle & Cartwright, 2000).
The host rock within the quarry consists of chlorite schist
which has undergone the
same regional deformation so commonly found in the Broken
Hill area. The chlorite
schist is abundant in euhedral plagioclase and magnetite
crystals up to 2mm in size. The
most striking feature of this deposit is a narrow (3m) zone
of abundant almandine
garnet mineralisation, where crystals have mineralized
upwards of 10cm in diameter,
weighing in excess of 4kg.
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