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 preparing of metal surfaces,Ship body Cleaning,Oil Refineries and out door equipment.
* Cutting -High Pressure Water Jet Cutting
* Water Filters-Water 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.