Nanutarra White Marble Quarry, Nanutarra Station, Ashburton Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Nanutarra White Marble Quarry	Quarry
Nanutarra Station	- not defined -
Ashburton Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Located 30 kilometres south-east of the Nanutarra Roadhouse, and 4 kilometres east of the Henry River. Owned by Dimension Stone of Australia Pty Ltd, mined intermittently for a number of years to 2008. The marble is found in the Irregully Formation.

This is expressed as a series of low hills, the deposit dipping 10 to 20 degrees east, consisting of up to 20 metre thick white to cream marble overlying 25 to 30 metres of mahogany red marble, with basal Pooranoo Metamorphics.

The white marble quarry and red marble quarry are within a few hundred metres of each other. The white quarry is 30 metres by 30 metres, with an extensive resource. The quarry produced three distinct types of marble from different areas. These were given marketing terms of Austral Pearl, Austral Dream, and Austral Brown.

Austral Pearl is white to pale grey with fine white veins, micritic, weakly ferroan dolomitic marble, with fine grained and coarse grained sparry carbonate veins, and stylolite veins with fibrous clinochlore.

Austral Dream is heterogeneous micritic fine to coarse grained, weakly ferroan and non-ferroan dolomitic marble, with quartz to sericite rich fragments, crenulated metasiltstone, and narrow quartz, sericite and clinochlore laminae.

Austral Brown appears to be an intermediate style between the two above.

A study of specimens mentions the following in some detail. Mottled, banded and irregular lenses cloudy micritic carbonate, and intergrowths of other carbonate types. Clearer carbonate is abundant where the clouded micritic carbonate is irregular. The mass also contains minor quartz and rare fine grained quartz with sericite laminae. Metasiltstone with minor leucoxene, carbonate, and rare clear tourmaline (achroite). Narrow anstromosing stylolites or shear related quartz laminae, schistose phyllosilicates, and schistose pale magnesian clinochlore, with and without carbonate, and some voids of leached material. Irregular lenses 12 mms by 4 mms coarse grained sparry carbonate. Pinkish red dolomitic marble stained by earthy hematite, with rare quartz, sericite and hematite. Irregular zones of clouded micritic carbonate, richer in hematite, with lenses and veins of coarse sparry carbonate 1 to 6 mms long, or irregular lenses with patches of slightly coarser carbonate.

The material is said to be visually attractive, hard, and takes a high polish. Most was exported to Italy, however examples can be seen in the flooring of the East Perth Railway Station, and the ground floor of Allendale Square St. Georges Terrace Perth.

Access is by heading east from the Uaroo pastoral station homestead near the North-West Coastal Highway. Both quarries contain substantial buildings and stock piles of marble blocks.

References

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