Spessartine Garnet

North Mine is one of the most famous mines on the Line of Lode at Broken Hill in Australia, one of the world’s most iconic and prolific mineral deposits.  Spessartine Garnet is amongst the most prized specimen material in the silicate group from this locality and this is a top-quality example of museum standard.  Spessartine can occur here with and without Galena; in this case it is the latter.  Highly lustrous, dodecahedral Spessartine crystals to typically over 1 cm wide form a densely packed surface on a massive granular Spessartine garnet matrix.  The crystals are translucent and show their true colour in transmitted light, in tones of cinnamon-brown and burgundy to deep-cherry.  North Mine was named for its position on the deposit, as the strike was long and worked by many different mines.  The Broken Hill polymetallic deposit was emplaced during the later Precambrian into a large anticlinal structure, who exhumed upper arc forms the visible Line of Lode.  Much deeper underground mines were required to exploit the anticline’s deep outer limbs to the north and south.  A first-class miniature Spessartine Garnet from North Mine, Broken Hill.