GMA Garnet was founded in 1983 after the world’s most concentrated alluvial garnet deposit was discovered near Port Gregory, a small coastal town in Western Australia’s Mid West region.
The high-performance abrasive potential of garnet was not recognized at the time, nor were there known uses for the mineral, but GMA’s founding team saw the potential for industrial garnet to revolutionize sandblasting while minimizing costs and impacts to businesses and the community.
In the following decades, GMA identified other high-grade garnet deposits, secured new tenements, and developed processing and recycling plants all around the world.
This allowed GMA to grow into the only vertically integrated industrial garnet supplier, managing the complete supply chain from the mine through to processing, international distribution, and recycling.
“What’s interesting is the commonly held theory that vertically integrated companies don’t work over the long term, because you can’t be excellent at everything,” GMA Chief Executive Grant Cox said.
“At GMA, we’re certainly trying to be excellent at everything, and we truly think we have been and will continue to be and strive to be the best in garnet processing and mining in the world and in the sales and distribution area.”