Mineralogical Walk “Garnet Crown”

Mineralogical Walk “Garnet Crown”

Extent - 25 km
Duration of excursion - 4-5 hours

The town Zlatoust – the mine “Evgrafovskii” – the mining-works “Akhmatovskaya” – the Nikolai-Maksimilianovskaya mining-work – the town Zlatoust.
During our mineralogical walk you can visit mining-works and find out more about different minerals and rocks.
It starts from the Taganaiskoe forestry near the railway station in Zlatoust.

Stop 1: The pass on the Nazmenskii ridge, from where the picturesque views of the western slopes of the mountain ridge Big Taganai open.
Stop 2: The ancient copper mine “Evgrafovskii”, discovered in 1808. Here you can pick up some minerals - malachite (different generations), chalcopyrite, native copper and others. From here it is possible to see Zlatoust in south.
Stop 3: The mining-works “Akhmatovskaya”, called “Garnet Crown” are situated in a contact metamorphic zone of amphibolites and marbleized limestone. The mining-works, which were opened in 1811, are protected by the state as a historical monument. It is possible to find fine samples of diopside, vesuvianite and clinochlore and also the first discovery of the mineral “perovskite” was made here. Samples of garnet and hessonite decorate collections of many museums around the world from the middle of the last century. In general it is possible to find out here about 30 different minerals.
Stop 4: Nikolai-Maksimilianovskaya mining-works, consisting of 17 small mines, in the forested slopes of Mt. Maksimmilian (named in honor of the president of the Academy of Arts - Maksimilian Leikhtenbergskii who visited the southern Urals in 1854) near the village Magnitka. Here it is possible to find the finest samples of skarn minerals - epidote, hessonite, diopside, clinochlore, sphene, perovskite, magnetite, forsterite, hornblende and others.
Samples from this mine are in expositions of the largest museums of the world.
Stop 5: Eremeevskaya mining-works, where it is possible to pick up crystals of garnets and vesuvianite in blue marble.