Coobina Chromite Mine (Jimblebah; Jimblebar; Murramunda), Sylvania Station, Meekatharra Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Coobina Chromite Mine (Jimblebah; Jimblebar; Murramunda)	Mine
Sylvania Station	Station (farming)
Meekatharra Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Dec 2012- Jimblebar is some historic gold diggings 5 km west of the mine (it is a different location to the Jimblebar Iron ore mine near Newman);
Murramunda is several locations east and south-east by a large distance, including a ruined telegraph station, non-existent indigenous community, outstation, and a chrysoprase mine of uncertain location in the district to the west.

The Coobina Chromite mine, operated by Consolidated Minerals Pty Ltd, is located approximately 50 km south-east of Newman in the Pilbara Province of Western Australia. First described in 1924, the location was originally referred to as Jimblebah, before being named Coobina after some gold workings in the area. It has also been referred to as Murramunda after a homestead approximately 10 km to the east (Simpson, 1948). The deposit was mined sporadically in a series of small open pits over the following decades, and is currently being mined for metallurgical grade chromite. The majority of pits are less than 70 metres deep.

The geology of the Coobina deposit and surrounding area was described by Tyler (1991). Chromite occurs in a series of chromitite seams, typically less than 2 metres wide, hosted in a body of complexly deformed, Archaean, serpentinised ultramafics, the top 40 metres or so of which show evidence of alteration by surface fluids to varying degrees. This body forms part of the Jimblebar Greenstone Belt, and is interpreted to be a relatively late-stage ultramafic sill intruded into an Archaean greenstone sequence, which was large and hot enough to allow efficient cumulus processes, involving olivine and chromite, to occur.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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