A large group of operating and abandoned, open cut and underground copper-silver-gold mine, started in about 1885 by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway company which operated until 1994 when, after a short closure, a new operator (Copper Mines of Tasmania) resumed operations to this time. In the 100 plus years of the original operations, over 120 million tonnes of ore was produced from several open cut and underground workings. The main mine is the Prince Lyell mine, but the North Lyell mine was of importance also.
The Mt Lyell copper-gold mines produce some excellent crystallised specimens of chalcopyrite, quartz, haematite, dolomite-ankerite and other minerals, particularly in late stage veins. They also contain some rare minerals such as mawsonite, betechtinite, florenceite, woodhousite, hessite, jalpaite, magnesiofoitite, zunyite and stromeyerite. The deposits are generally considered to be of Cambrian volcanic origin, but the occurrence of more typically granite-related minerals like topaz, tourmaline, fluorite, mawsonite and stannoidite, and the late stage, mineralised but undeformed veins, indicates the input of either Cambrian or Devonian granitic influence on the ores, plus local remobilisation during Devonian deformation.
Refs.:
Bottrill R. and Olubas P, 2007: The Mt. Lyell Mines in Australian and New Zealand Mineral Collector magazine, Issue 4. http://www.lulu.com/content/1717419
Blainey, G., 1954: The Peaks of Lyell. Parkville Vic., Melbourne University Press. 3rd. edn. 341pp.
Hills, P.B., 1990: Mount Lyell copper-gold-silver deposits. In: Hughes, F.E., (ed.) 1990: Geology of the mineral deposits of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Monog. 16. Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Melbourne. 1257-1267.
Corbett, K.D., 2001, New mapping and interpretations of the Mount Lyell Mining district, Tasmania: a large hybrid Cu-Au system with an exhalative Pb-Zn top. Econ. Geol. 96, 1089-1122
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Map Reference: 42°5'S , 145°35'E
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