Malayaite and tin‐bearing silicates from a skarn at Doradilla via Bourke, New South Wales

An extensive complex zoned skarn is developed at the contact of a leucoadamellite intrusive at Doradilla, NW New South Wales. The skarn is a disequilibrium assemblage resulting from a progressive sequence of replacement of a carbonate precursor. Early grossular‐clinopyroxene rocks are replaced by andradite with 0.5–3.5 wt.% SnO2 clinopyroxene and quartz. Later alteration along fractures and bedding planes of the garnet‐clinopyroxene quartz assemblage has produced calcite‐malayaite (CaSn0.95Ti0.05SiO5) veins. The final replacement stage was the overprinting of the silicate phases by assemblages containing sulphides, cassiterite, magnetite, titanite, fluorite, biotite and chlorite. The tin content of garent increases with increasing andradite component suggesting replacement of Fe3+ by Sn4+. Associated clinopyroxenes contain 0.1% SnO2. The coexistence of titanite and its tin isomorph malayaite with extremely limited solid solution indicates late stage skarn temperatures of less than 400°C.