27-01-2016, 11:05 AM
Origin and occurrence:
The rock-forming garnets are most common in metamorphic rock . A few occur in igneous rocks, especially granites and granitic pegmatites
Garnets derived from such rocks occur sporadically in clastic sediments and sedimentary rocks
Garnets commonly contain many inclusions—i.e., fragments of other rocks and minerals
present-day consensus appears to be that they represent rotation during growth under conditions of dynamicmetamorphism that involved differential pressures.
Occurrence& deposits in srikakulam district:
About 235 acres corresponding to a coastal length of 11.5 kms between Nagavalli and Vamsadhara rivers in Srikakulam district and has the distinction of being the first mining lease srikakulam
The deposit is named after SRIKURMAM, a well known pilgrim center, being in the central point of the deposits. It is about 14 kms south of Srikakulam town, the district headquarters.
Srikurmam deposit is considered to be one of the best deposits for garnet in the east coast of India.
In srikakulam, Almandine garnet is one of the best natural abrasive and is preferred over other natural abrasives like Silica sand, mineral sands and flint
The bulk of the Almandine garnet in the international market comes from India.
Garnet (50,000 TPA) from beach sands based on the Srikurmam deposit.
Garnet sand is a good abrasive and a common replacement for silica sand in sand blasting. Mixed with very high pressure water garnet is used to cut steel and other materials in water jets. Garnet sand is also used for water filtration media.
Economical:
Transworld Garnet is all set to further expand to produce two lakh million tonnes of heavy minerals per year at the plant in Srikakulam district.
44 percent of Indian garnet reserves are found in the Andhra Pradesh and 90 percent of them are found in Srikakulam district.