Iron Monarch Main Pit

Iron Knob, Pastoral Unincorporated Area, South Australia, Australia

A large open pit iron mine near the town of Iron Knob, north of Adelaide.

The site appears to have been worked from around 1888 until 1998, when the mine was closed. It was reopened in 2013, and again in 2022.

Most of the orebody worked here is dense ‘massive’ hematite, often with cores of magnetite. Manganese minerals are also found, as are quartz and calcite.

The site is quite well known amongst mineral collectors for phosphate minerals, with some rather interesting mineral specimens being found here.

The mine is the type locality for seven species, cloudite, francisite, gatehouseite, kleemanite, middlebackite, waterhouseite, and whiteite-(MnMnMg).

Over 150 mineral species have been found at the site.

 

Further reading

 

We may have specimens from various locales around South Australia including:

South Australia

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