The Best from Down Under

Hi Fred,

Thank you for the lovely wild flower photo! Very thoughtful of you. :) They are wondrous as Trevor elaborated.

Your minerals are just as wondrous and the emeralds really caught my eye.

Trevor, awesome specimens. I have a fondness for zinnwaldite, that's a beauty.

Fabulous posts one and all. Patrick your monstrous finds are truly astounding. Keep up the great work!

cheers,
stephanie (:D

As many of you know by now my passion is with Bulgarian, Bolivian, Chinese, Peruvian and some English and Italian hematites, but in spite of this I do have a few Australian Minerals – mainly ores. Below is a photo of a nice apple green Gaspeite. Apparently it is a rather rare ore of Nickel and is used in the manufacture of jewelry. It comes from the Kambalda Nickel Mine, Kambalda, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australia. It is 9 x 5 x 2cm.

I agree Samuel, gaspeite can be a very pretty specimen, but finding a vivid "granny smith apple green" piece that one can fashion into something even more beautiful is by no means an easy task. Attached are two photos of gaspeite "in situ" with a local native from Widgiemooltha Western Australia. The final two show a pleasing piece I slabbed with the other slice that I managed to turn into something reasonable; approximately 40mm X 18mm and weighing 63 ct..

I agree Samuel, gaspeite can be a very pretty specimen, but finding a vivid "granny smith apple green" piece that one can fashion into something even more beautiful is by no means an easy task. Attached are two photos of gaspeite "in situ" with a local native from Widgiemooltha Western Australia. The final two show a pleasing piece I slabbed with the other slice that I managed to turn into something reasonable; approximately 40mm X 18mm and weighing 63 ct..

Cuprite from the Red Dome copper mine, Queensland...


Regards
Steve

For today’s “best from down under” I would like to post a treat! Attached are three photos. The first two are of Azurite in Matrix (siltstone) from the Burra Mine and the third is a cast ingot of Burra Copper. That is right a Burra Copper Ingot. I collected at the Burra Mine in the mid 70’s when it was operated by Samin Ltd, and recovered a lot of material some nice pieces, but a lot of high grade ore. Over the years I have given away lots of Azurite nodules, but still have a dozen or so left. The ore samples were destined to be thrown away – an ultimatum from the Ex so I thought if I could not keep them perhaps I could at least recover the copper. When I worked in WA some 600km north of Kalgoorlie the opportunity afforded itself for me to make use of a cupellation furnace that was destined to end up at the tip. The ore samples were crushed and the high grade fragments recovered and these went into the furnace and the end result was the copper ingot cast in an iron “fire assay” mold. It was not this easy and I have left many of the steps out but all I wanted was the copper. The Azurite and copper come from the famous Burra Burra Mine, Burra, Mt Lofty Ranges, South Australia, Australia. The Azurite piece is 7 x 4 x 4cm. The copper Ingot is 5cm wide (max) and 4cm high, and weighs 307 grams.

For anyone thinking about getting some Burra copper the easy way just suspend an old car body in the flooded pit for a couple of days or weeks:)









Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2011 02:33AM by SAMUEL FAIRFIELD.

Emerald crystals in matrix. Torrington, NSW, Australia. 5.1 x 4.2 cm.

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Great posts everyone and great Gaspeite David. AM your Torrington Emeralds are great.

For the best from down under I am posting a photo of one of my Cadjebut galena specimens and I have oodles of them. On some the Galena is covered with beautiful iridescent marcasite. On others the galena appears as “hemispheres.” Some even look like a big grey and iridescent stalk of cauliflower. The geologists called the Cadjebut mine a MVT or Mississippi Valley Type deposit. The specimen shown below comprises galena cubes (~ 6mm, largest) on matrix. The fawn coloured material is Sphalerite. It comes from the Cadjebut mine, Fitzroy Crossing, Kimberley, Derby-West Kimberley Shire, Western Australia, Australia. 8 x 7 x 5 cm.

For today’s best from down under I am posting some photos of a specimen that arrived by DHL courier yesterday. It is a specimen of native antimony from Australia that was once part of the collection of Hodder Michael Westropp (1820-1885). Westropp was an Irish archaeologist born in County Cork and published a “Handbook of Archaeology” in 1867. He had many pieces from some of Australia’s earliest mines including the famous Burra Burra Mine. The piece is a highly lustrous crystal or crystal fragment of Antimony. There is some conjecture as to the true locality of the piece but most learned individuals are very confident it came from Hillgrove, Near Armidale, New England District, New South Wales, Australia. It is 5 x 3 x 1.5cm.

Not much happening on the thread for while - A bout time we did something about this problem. Well it might not be a mineral but this is definitely one of the Best from Down Under.

Because this is where I found it, "down under" the waste slide at the closed Aberfoyle mine, Tasmania



Andrew T

SoreBackite? :o

Very good Patrick, (:D I understand it has an epimorph called Blisterite - generally found further on the outer parts of the deposit.

Andrew

I was very impressed how you found one with your initials already on it!

Regards,
Ralph

I picked this specimen up back in the late 1970's from the Mineralogical Research Company. It's a solid nugget of Native Bismuth with the remains of a few quartz crystals from the Mount Arthur Mine, Queensland, Australia. Specimen measures 5.5 x 3.5 x 2 cm.

Another goodie collected in Harts Range (2008) from a nice pocket of scepter Quartz:
A large, single milky quartz crystal point covered in a sceondary over-growth of gemmy, double-terminated amethyst and smoky quartz crystals. Specimen measures 9cm tall x 8cm wide.

And one more for today, a freshly dug 7cm Amethyst "reverse" scepter from Harts Range, different pocket to the crystal above.

Great artifact find Andrew, was the other end intact? And unusually interesting amethysts, Patrick.
Impressive natives as well....

Jim

Unfortunately the metal bit is no more. this is a fairly acidic environment, however I am guessing from the damage to the handle, this handle broke and had been removed and a new handle added to the metal blade. It is no longer than 700mm (approx 2 feet 6 inches), so it was likely used for working in really cramped areas underground.


I have added another full sized photo below


I know a couple of miners who worked at Aberfoyle Mine before the work became mechanized using jumbo drills, (which killed the operation due to costs resulting from the ecessive waste rock percentage). They worked the veins with hand operated jackhammers, so only removing enough material to allow a man to stand front on to the face. I had been told that all tools to removed the blasted rock were smallish, so this shovel handle supports their comments.

One of the guys started underground around 15 years of age with his father working the jackhammers in the early 1980's. Unfortunately he did not collect any crystals, but I nearly cried after he told me the number and quality of BIG cassitierite they occasionally found in the veins (and shoveled into the skips). To get some idea of their working conditions - when stoping out a level, they worked from the access drive the full length of the vein to a general shoulder width and a height that they could reach working the jackhammers overhead. Crushed waste rock was then dumped into the excavated stope lifting the floor level to about 3 feet from the ceiling and the process started again.

I am told that when you met the jack hammer men, you know immediately what they did because of their general shape.... they have muscles on their fingernails. The ex miner I know is about 5 foot 8 high but I am sure he is 4 foot wide, from the neck (which starts at his ears), down to his feet.


Andrew

A specimen featuring candle quartz from Torrington NSW, note the two japanes law twin quartz, near the top of the large quartz. This piece actually has five japanes law twins on it, including one that is the main support directly under the main crystal. .....Greg

This is my favorite specimen from Australia. Various phosphates (radial sprays of Scolzite, small white barrels of Collinsite and also small brownish Parahopeite crystals which is hard to see in photo) on limonite matrix, measures 9 cm.