We have the best and biggest garnet mine in Australia
Almandine garnet mineralisation at the Tomkap Giant Garnet Mine.
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.