Warda Warra pegmatite field, Meka Station, Yalgoo Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Warda Warra pegmatite field	Pegmatite Field
Meka Station	Station (farming)
Yalgoo Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Jacobsen briefly details a number of pegmatites covering a 15 kilometre north-south length, north-west of the Dalgaranga and Mount Farmer mines. Furthest north is Tantalus (Camp Bore) pegmatite, just west of Boogaloo Well and just south of Yardoo Rock. Suggested GPS co-ordinates are 514,700E 6,961,900N AGD66. Kylie pegmatite just south of Tantalus. Suggested GPS co-ordinates are 512,887E 6,953,511N AGD66. Warda Warra Hill emerald pegmatite, south-east of Cardecarrie Well just north of the Warda Warra Hill summit. Suggested GPS co-ordinates are 513,280E 6,949,855N AGD66. Warda Warra tantalum pegmatite just south of Warda Warra Hill and is part of Dalgaranga Station. Suggested GPS co-ordinates are 512,224E 6,943,125N AGD66.

Found in the Warda Warra Greenstone Belt. The pegmatites generally contain microlite, tapiolite, and tantalite along the margin of the quartz core along the footwall side. They are quartz rich and feldspar/muscovite poor.

Tantalus was discovered by Hodder (surname) and mined by G. Todd, but no dates are given. 50.71 tonnes of beryl and 320 kilograms of tantalite concentrate was mined. The pegmatite contains albite, beryl, microcline, muscovite, quartz, tantalite, xenotime and zircon.

Kylie saw beryl mined of at least 60.22 tonnes but no further information is provided. The pegmatite strikes north, is 10-15 metres wide, containing a mining trench 90 metres long. There are abundant white chalcedony nodules up to 12 cms diameter below 5 metres depth. Species include albite, beryl, microcline, muscovite and quartz.

At the Warra Warda emerald pegmatite, emeralds are found in clusters less than 5 mm in diameter and 5cms in length. The emeralds occur in quartz veins, with many of the beryl crystals intergrown and replaced by triclinic potash feldspar. The reference notes when they visited in 2002, no beryl or emerald was seen on the surface in the minor diggings. Beryl, emerald, quartz and microcline occur here.

Extensive shallow diggings occur at the Warra Warda tantalum pegmatite. E.R. Phillips (1962), Roy Corney (1969) and Stan MacDonald (1977) pegged the area. In the 1980's Pilgan Mining processed surface material from the pegmatite. The pegmatite has a 50 metre strike length and contains severly weathered bluish massive quartz, grey microcline and muscovite. Alluvial fergusonite, microlite, simpsonite, tantalite and tapiolite also come from the pegmatite.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References