Greenhills Quarry, Greenhills, Invercargill City, Southland Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Greenhills Quarry	Quarry
Greenhills	- not defined -
Invercargill City	City
Southland Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

There are six quarries at varying distances off Omaui Road, all at various times labelled with the generic name 'Greenhills Quarry'. This Mindat location relates to the council or former council owned quarry immediately east of the Southern Aggregates Limited quarry.

Varying amounts of information was found for all, and it would be useful to give a brief summary of the locations. The City Corporation Quarry is the furthest east, at the end of McLaughlan Road. It was active in the late 19th to early 20th centuries as an aggregate quarry, initially privately owned, then taken over by the local council. It is not noted for specimens, or at least there was no interest in them at the time of operation, although a coral fossil has come from the site in 1921, now in the Southlands Museum.

500 metres east of the main Bluff Road, and just south of Omaui Road is an old overgrown un-named quarry, we have a list of species for. 4 kilometres along the road, and 500 metres to the south is the modern active Greenhills Quarry, and immediately west the modern active Southern Aggregates Limited quarry. Bordering the end of Omaui Road is a shallow semi abandoned pit, little information was found on, and further west, isolated in bushland is a small excavation noted as a stichtite specimen location.

(Cross, 2011) The Greenhills Quarry is on the western edge of the Greenhills Complex, southern intrusion, dominated by dunite. Primary minerals consist of olivine, with minor chromian spinel, clinopyroxene, rare othopyroxene and plagioclase. A series of dykes of varying compositions cross-cut the dunite, and form small zones of plagioclase rich rocks.

The olivine is fractured, and partly replaced by serpentine and carbonate. When this was XRD examined, calcite, chlorite, chyrsotile, and rarer phyllosilicates were found. At the micro-level, platinum values and gold was found in some chromian spinel grains.

At the time of writing it was an active aggregate quarry. In 2015 it was owned by the council, and they were discussing selling it to a private buyer.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References