The latest addition to PMC’s list of minerals is Garnet – Almandine. This is mined at PMC’s own Sri Venkata Sai Mines, located in Nellore Dist. AP. Almandine Garnet (sometimes wrongly referred to as Almandite) is twelve sided crystal. It is a very hard material with a Moh’s Scale hardness of 6.5 to 7.5.

This garnet is not got from beach sands like most other garnets in India and so is very eco-friendly. When garnet is mined from beach sand, large areas of the beach gets polluted and spoilt.

Garnet is a very safe and eco-friendly material which can be used in various applications.

• Abrasives – Sand paper, cutting and grinding wheels
• Sand Blasting – cleaning and preparation of metal surfaces, Ship body cleaning, Oil Refineries, and out door equipment.
• Cutting – high pressure water jet cutting
• Water Filters – Filter medium.
  

As a medium for sand blasting, Garnet is the preferred over Silica Sand, Quartz and metal slag. Garnet can be reused several and is non-polluting. And the fine dust produced during blasting is not carcinogenic like it is for Silica Sand or quartz.

Processing:

• The Garnet from the mines is cleaned with water to remove the mud and non garnet materials.
• These are ground in mills.
• Material is then sieved on vibro-sieves to get the required grain sizing.
• Finished product is tested in the lab and packed as per requirement.

Specifications:

Typical Physical Properties:

                        Colour                           : Dark Brown – Reddish
                        Specific Gravity            :  4.1
                        Free Moisture              : 0.5 % Maximum
                        Shape of particle        : Sub-angluar
                        Odour                           : Odourless

Typical Chemical Analysis:

Chemical Name          :  Iron Aluminum Silicate
                                               
Loss on Ignition         :  1 – 2 %

Hardness                    :  7.5 Moh’s Scale

(Other grades can be produced on request)

Specification   : 90 % within limits

Bulk Density             : G-1           :  1.8 Kg/L
                                     G-2 / G-3   :  1.6 Kg/L
                                     G-4/G-5     :   1.5 Kg/L

Standard Packing  : 25 Kgs – HDPE bag
                                    1000 Kgs Jumbo bags with top and bottom opening

Material Safety Data Sheets
Please note that the specific ingredients used for the formulation of the individual products are not listed in the Material Safety Data Sheets and claimed by the Company as proprietary information. For complete disclosure, however, please contact The Premier Mica Company directly. Garnet - MSDS ------------------------------------------------------------- These MSDS sheets are in PDF format. Click here if you don't already have Acrobat Reader.