Adradite

This small-cabinet specimen features a partially acid-etched calcite pocket that has exposed numerous dark brown andradite garnet crystals. It comes from the extensive skarn zone of the Marmoraton Iron Mine near Marmora, Ontario. The garnets are well-formed, intergrown trapezohedral crystals with layered development, there is some bruising to the specimen but remains a fine representative locality specimen. The Marmoraton Mine, a former open-pit iron operation active from the 1950s until its closure in 1977, was developed within Precambrian meta-sedimentary rocks and is well known for producing collectible skarn minerals such as garnet, diopside, and epidote.