A CLASSIC LOCALITY: THE A.B.H. CONSOLS MINE OF BROKEN HILL, NEW SOUTH WALES.

By Peter Andersen

P.O. Box 2418

Mildura

Victoria 3502

Australia

Email: pjandersen50@hotmail.com

Howard Smith*

Mimi

Gold Coast

Queensland

* Deceased in 2000

Senior Authors Note. The late Howard Smith wrote the definitive history on the A.B.H. Consols Mine when he published “Not the slightest reason to doubt- the story of the Australian Broken Hill Consols Mine” in the May, 2000 issue of Metal Stone and Glass. Howard was definitely the person to write this history as his paternal grandfather, the noted mineral collector George “Specimen” Smith, was employed by the mine as its Assayer and Sub-Manager and was eventual to become the General Manager of this incredible mine. Howard’s access to family documents and listening to the tales that his grandfather had to tell about this mine meant that he had access to all the fine details involved in the operation of this short lived but very rich silver mine. This entire article has been reproduced here as the history part of this locality article on the A.B.H. Consols Mine. I would also like to acknowledge my thanks to Joan Millton, the editor of Metal, Stone and Glass, for permission to reproduce this article as part of this paper.

INTRODUCTION

One of the richest silver mines to ever be discovered here in Australia was the A.B.H. Consols Mine that was discovered on a vein only 600 metres east of the main Broken Hill orebody. The antimonial silver vein that the A.B.H. Consols Mine was established on varied from only a few centimetres in width up to a maximum width of 3 metres with the average width being 0.45 metres (Plimer, 1982). This vein was eventually followed and worked to a depth of over 500 feet with the main inclined shaft of the A.B.H. Consols Mine being sunk to a depth of 860 feet. During its main working life the A.B.H. Consols Mine produced a total of 24 000 kilograms of silver and 20 tonnes of lead from the date of its inception in 1890 when it was established on blocks 95-99 (see Figure 1) until its final closure in 1903. Over 10 tonne of the mineral dyscrasite was removed and processed from the A.B.H. Consols Mine to help produce the silver values that this mine was set up to produce. Initial silver assays disclosed that the ore content had 84.5% silver present but the silver content of this mine was highly variable as one 118 tonne parcel had half of it assay out at 7, 495 ounces of silver per ton (=22.9% silver) and the remainder only assayed at 713 ounces of silver per ton (=2.2% silver) (King, 1953). Because of the richness of the silver of this lode that the A.B.H. Consols Mine was established on, it was worked not only by the miners mining the rich silver ore but also by manipulators of the share markets of the time in places as far apart as Sydney and London. (Blainey,1999).

This silver ore of the A.B.H. Consols Mine was mainly made up of a mixture of metallic silver and the very rare mineral dyscrasite. In fact in 1891 the miners discovered in the A.B.H. Consols Mine, at a depth of 98 feet, a slug of dyscrasite/silver that weighed in at over a tonne and that looked like a large silver turtle. This slug was too large to be extracted intact and so had to be broken up in the mine and extracted in pieces. The assay of the “Silver Turtle” showed that it contained 84.5% silver and George “Specimen” Smith, the Assayer and Sub Manger of the A.B.H. Consols Mine at the time of this find reported to the inaugural meeting of what became the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy “parts of the “Great Turtle” graduated into perfectly crystalline aggregates, presenting when freshly broken a beautifully brilliant appearance of a tin white colour and dazzling lustre” (Blainey, 1999).

The method of mining adopted in the extraction of the deposits of the rich silver ore encountered in the A.B.H. Consols Mine was to remove enough of the hanging wall so as to uncover fairly large areas of the orebodies. By this means these orebodies rich in silver could be stoped free from gangue or other waste rock. This process often resulted in very good exposure of the orebody being removed so it could be closely inspected and any alterations of the minerals or other unusual mineral occurrences could be noted since the silver ore was broken out piecemeal. The fact that the underlie of the Consols Lode was very flat facilitated these periodic examinations of the silver orebody as it was exposed during mining operations.

It was very fortunate to the science of mineralogy that a very keen mineral collector had a senior position in the management of this mine otherwise very little in the way of specimen material from this very unusual locality would have been preserved. Almost all the specimens from the A.B.H. Consols Mine in collections today are preserved because George “Specimen” Smith was allowed to collect and keep samples that otherwise would have been smelted down for their silver values. Two of the best collections of minerals from the A.B.H. Consols Mine are preserved in the institutional mineral collections of the Australian Museum in Sydney and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Both of these collections of A.B.H. Consols Mine minerals were obtained due to the efforts of George “Specimen” Smith in preserving specimens from the Consols Lode. The Australian Museum obtained its specimens from the A.B.H. Consols Mine because they purchased the two mineral collections that George “Specimen” Smith had put together, one in 1907 that probably contained the best of his A.B.H. Consols Mine mineral specimen suite and the other in 1927 when George “Specimen” Smith decided it was time to find a good home for his second mineral collection. The Smithsonian Institution obtained its suite of A.B.H. Consols Mine specimens because George “Specimen” Smith was trading mineral specimens with the noted American mineral collector, Washington Roebling and his magnificent collection was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1927 (along with a quite significant cash donation as well so as to keep this mineral collection active with new acquisitions). Among the specimens from the A.B.H. Consols Mine that George “Specimen” Smith sent to Washington Roebling there was the type specimen of Willyamite that Pittman had described as a new mineral in 1898 and in this specimen another new mineral was found and described in 1970 by Cabri et al when they were redefining the status of willyamite. Thus the Smithsonian Institution ended up with two out of three of the type specimens of the minerals first described and named that were found in the A.B.H. Consols Mine.



GEOLOGY

The vein of mineralization that the A.B.H. Consols Mine was developed on is a small transgressive vein type deposit located some 550 metres south east of the North mine leases at Broken Hill in far western New South Wales. The silver lode of the A.B.H. Consols Mine is classed by some as being a Thackaringa Type Deposit and on the basis of lead isotopic data the minerals present in these deposits were derived from a source that was independent of the Broken Hill Type Deposits (Cooper, 1970). Other geologists consider that the origin of the Consols type veins associated with the main lode Broken Hill orebody were derived from fluids that were released from the main Broken Hill orebody during retrograde metamorphism since the mineral assemblages, spatial relationships to the main Broken Hill orebody and the similarity of the Consols Lode to veins in the British Retrograde Shear Zone indicate that this is what occurred (Lawrence, 1968b, Lawrence et al 1999; Boots, 1972). This would discount the Consols Lode as being a Thackaringa Type Deposit and would put it into its own unique group along with the silver vein found on the 12 level of the Junction Mine down Browne’s Shaft.

The lode of the A.B.H. Consols Mine occurs on a flat fracture or fissure that transgresses the main metamorphic rock beds at right angles to the regional lineation of these beds. The fissure that contains the Consols lode dips to the south west from 24 degrees through to near vertical. The NW-SE strike of this vein cuts across the regional trend of the host rocks of the main Broken Hill orebody at right angles and the NW strike is in the general direction of the South Mine leases on the main lode. This transgressive vein was very rich in silver only when it was in the amphibolite rock (see Figure 2). Outside the amphibolite the lode channel was only represented by a small amount of gouge. These amphibolites are made up of a wide range of altered basic rocks that interlayer, and in some cases, transgress the schists and gneisses of the Willyama complex. The best ore in the A.B.H. Consols Mine was found where the Consols Lode was intersected by two steeply dipping “cross” veins striking NE-SW, parallel to the trend of the amphibolite. One of these cross veins was about a metre wide and contained sphalerite, pyrite and quartz; the other cross vein consisted of biotite with clay (King, 1953). Where the lode veins of the Consols Mine crossed into the adjacent Willyama group of schists and gneisses the ore was markedly impoverished and was not worth the effort of mining it.

The region of the Broken Hill district has undergone two main periods of metamorphism. The first erogonic event occurred over 1750 million years ago and this was a granulitic facies metamorphism during which the local sedimentary and igneous intrusive rocks underwent extreme metamorphism and were altered into gneisses and schists. The second metamorphic event was a retrograde metamorphism and it occurred around 500 million years ago. During this second event secondary hydrothermal (metahydrothermal) fluids selectively removed from the main Broken Hill lode and redeposited a number of different metals and other components in fractures and shears near the main parent Broken Hill orebody.

Like the main Broken Hill orebody the Consols orebody has undergone a period of weathering that produced a range of oxidised minerals and this oxidation occurred to a depth of around 50 metres in the Consols Lode.



THE HISTORY OF THE A.B.H. CONSOLS MINE

By Howard Smith



THE MINERALOGY OF THE A.B.H. CONSOLS MINE LODE

Compared to the “rainforest” mineralogy of the adjacent main Broken Hill orebody, the mineralogy of the A.B.H. Consols Mine is rather basic with less than 70 different mineral species being identified. The primary components of the Consols lode comprises cobalt, copper, iron, lead, nickel and silver bearing minerals in the forms of arsenides, antimonides, silver sulphosalts, sulphides, native elements and intermetallic compounds (see Table 1, modified from Lawrence et al, 1999). The secondary oxidised zone of the Consols lode was not extensive as far as mineral species goes with the main minerals present being halides such as chlorargyrite, bromargyrite and iodargyrite. There were also large amounts of undetermined antimony oxides present in the oxidised zone as well. The total number of species recorded by Smith (1922) as occurring in the oxidised zone of the Consols Lode was only 17, which is really very mimsicule when compared to the range of mineral species occurring in the oxidised zone of the main Broken Hill orebody. Table 2 lists the minerals present in the oxidised zone of the Consols Lode. The gangue minerals were very minor and included aragonite, calcite, quartz, siderite and stilpnomelane. Table 3 lists all the minerals that need verification by more modern scientific means before they can be accepted as being present in the Consols Lode. The uniqueness of the Consols Lode is in the number of unusual antimonial minerals that are present. The A.B.H. Consols Mine is also the type locality of three rather rare minerals: costibite, paradocrasite and willyamite; all of which have antimony present as part of their chemical composition. The paragenetic sequence of most of the Consols Lode minerals is shown in table 4 (and is taken from Plimer, 1982).

That very prolific specimen collector, George “Specimen” Smith, was quite instrumental in collecting and describing the minerals that occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine. Admittedly George “Specimen” Smith had a distinct advantage in that he was management and would end up becoming the General Manager of this very rich silver mine, so very few people involved in this mining operation could actually tell him not to spend time in collection theses specimens. The mineral species that George “Specimen” Smith first identified, with the dates of identification, as occurring in all parts of the orebody of the A.B.H. Consols Mine were acanthite (1891), aurichalcite (1890), bournonite (1890-but has not been verified since Smith’s identification), chenevixite (1890-but has not been verified since Smith’s identification), cobaltite (1891- but what Smith identified as being cobaltite was to turn out to be skutterudite), covellite (1892), dyscrasite (1890), erythrite (1890), kermesite (1895), molybdenite (1890-but has not been verified since Smith’s identification), phosgenite (1890), proustite (1898), pyrargyrite (1890), stephanite (1893), sternbergite (1892 but what Smith identified as being sternbergite was to turn out to be the much rarer dimorph mineral, argentopyrite), stibnite (1892), sulphur (1890), vanadinite (1890) and wollastonite (1892).

The description of the minerals has been done alphabetically as this way it is easier to find the description of a particular mineral species if so required. Minerals species listed in lower case are of doubtful origin as their presence in the Consols Lode orebody has not been confirmed by any other study made after the original one by George Smith and as such they do need further verification before their presence in the Consols Lode can be fully accepted.



ACANTHITE

The silver sulphide mineral, acanthite, occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as a supergene mineral and was found to be of common occurrence in the first 40 metres of mining. The acanthite was found as dark grey plates, films, dendrites and well formed crystals throughout the orebody. It also occurred there as replacements of dyscrasite, galena and native silver. The best crystals were found in association with native silver but most of the acanthite crystals encountered during mining operations were either incomplete or rather shrivelled in appearance. Acanthite was also found as banded rims around galena (Markham and Lawrence, 1962). Acanthite was derived from the breakdown of tetrahedrite and in the A.B.H. Consols Mine the minerals commonly found associated with this mineral include covellite, pyrite, silver, stephanite and terahedrite.



ALLARGENTUM

The rather rare silver antimony alloy, allargentum, was one of the main primary ore minerals of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. It was found on a regular basis throughout the A.B.H. Consols Mine and usually in association with large masses of dyscrasite. In the A.B.H. Consols Mine allargentum occurred only in the massive form where it was silver grey in colour. In polished section the allargentum from the A.B.H. Consols Mine often shows exsolution lamellae of dyscrasite and veinlets of silver-dyscrasite intergrowth (Lawrence, 1968a). In their report, Markham and Lawrence, (1962), found four main assemblages, three of which involved allargentum as a major phase:

Allargentum-dyscrasite

Allargentum-antimonial silver

Allargentum-antimonial silver-dyscrasite

Dyscrasite-antimonial silver



ALMAGAM

When Lawrence et al, (1999) examined in detail the mineralogy of the “silver chloro-antimoniate” alteration of dyscrasite they found in this study a number of tiny grains of mercury silver alloys that had a composition consistent of almagam when analysed by an electron microprobe. Associated with these amalgam grains were other small grains of another mercury silver alloy that gave a composition of luanheite when analysed by an electron microprobe (Lawrence et al, 1999).



ANGLESITE

The rather common lead sulphate mineral, anglesite, was reported by Smith in his 1922 description of the mineralogy of the Consols Lode as occurring in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine (Smithh, 1922). It occurred here as alteration crusts rimming remnant galena along with the cerussite that was also formed during this oxidation process.



ANTIMONY

During mining operations of the primary ore of the Consols Lode rather nice tin white antimony crystals up to 1 cm across were occasionally encountered embedded in calcite and enclosed by siderite. These antimony crystals were often rounded, elongated or equant and could be striated as well. Some of the crystals were twined whilst others showed a stepped hopper development on certain faces. Stibarsen and stibnite were the minerals often found associated with the antimony in the A.B.H. Consols Mine. In fact one spectacular specimen that was collected by George Smith from the ABH Consols Mine and sent to Washington Roebling as part of a mineral exchange consisted of a 7 cm cluster of sharp crystals of antimony to 1 cm in size that was associated with very bright crystals of stibnite. Antimony was also identified as being present in the Consols Lode as eutectic-type intergrowths with stibarsen and these eutectic-type intergrowths with stibarsen are due to the unmixing of an originally homogenous antimony-arsenic compound during the cooling process (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



ANTIMONY OXIDE

An antimony oxide that was either senarmontite or valentinite was discovered by Lawrence et al (1999) during their investigations of the alteration products of dyscrasite. The grain size of these antimony oxides are very small and no further details about them were able to be obtained during this investigation (Lawrence et al, 1999).



ARAGONITE

Aragonite was not a common mineral in any of the mines in the Broken Hill district and the best specimens came from the A.B.H. Consols Mine. At the 100 metre level of this mine well formed colourless to white crystals were found in a fracture zone (Smith 1893a).



ARGENTOPYRITE

The rather rare silver sulphosalt argentopyrite was quite common in the A.B.H. Consols Mine at a depth of around 45 metres where it formed dark grey irregular masses in the calcite gangue. Early descriptions of this mineral referred to it being its dimorph, sternbergite, but its true identity as being argentopyrite was confirmed by the 1962 study made by Markham and Lawrence on the primary ore minerals of the Consols Lode. The associated minerals found with the argentopyrite in the A.B.H. Consols Mine are pyrargyrite, pyrostilpnite and stephanite and these are usually only seen in polished section.



ARSENOPYRITE

Arsenopyrite was not a common mineral in the Consols Lode as it has only been observed occurring as small 1.4 mm euhedral diamond shaped prismatic crystals in chalcopyrite-galena-tetrahedrite rich ore. In these specimens the arsenopyrite surrounded a core of lollingite and was also associated with pyrargyrite and silver.



AURICHALCITE

The zinc carbonate mineral, aurichalcite, was never of common occurrence in the oxidised zone of either the main Broken Hill Lode or the adjoining Consols Lode. There was only one occurrence of aurichalcite recorded from the A.B.H. Consols Mine but it was a spectacular one as a single vug was encountered that contained very beautiful stalactitic masses of aurichalcite surrounding centres which were made up of dyscrasite, goethite and iodargyrite (Birch, 1999).



AZURITE

The blue copper carbonate, azurite, was reported by Smith in his 1922 description of the mineralogy of the Consols Lode as occurring in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine (Smithh, 1922). It occurred here as small drusy crystals and crusts on limonite associated with erythrite, a grey mineral identified as being chalcostibite, dyscrasite and siderite; as seen on a mineral specimen that was collected from the A.B.H. Consols Mine in 1898 and is now in the mineral collection of the South Australian Museum.



BINDHEIMITE

The yellow antimony bearing canary ores were of common occurrence in the oxidised zone of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. The main mineral that made up these masses of yellow powdery ores was bindheimite and it varied in colour from pale yellow to greenish yellow and orange. Other minerals found in association with the bindheimite to make up these earthy masses included chlorargyrite, stibiconite, almagam and luanheite (Lawrence et al, 1999).



Bornite

In his early work on the mineralogy of the A.B.H. Consols Mine George Smith indicated that he had detected the presence of the copper sulphide mineral, bornite (Smith 1922) but no other investigators have confirmed the presence of this mineral so its presence is extremely doubtful in the primary ore zone of the Consols Lode.



Bournonite

This mineral was described by Smith in 1893 as occurring in the A.B.H. Consols Mine in the first 30 metres of the lode where it occurred as amorphous masses in limonite associated with tetrahedrite and other silver minerals (Smith, 1893, 1922). However there was no bournonite found at all in the minerals studied during the 1962 scientific study made by Markham and Lawrence on the primary ore minerals of the Consols Lode (Markham and Lawrence, 1962) and Dr Bill Birch also casts doubt on the presence of this mineral in the Consols Lode as there was widely varying silver and antimony contents of the analyses made by George Smith in 1893 on the bournonite specimens that he had (Birch 1999).



BREITHAUPTITE

The nickel antimonide mineral, breithauptite, occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine ore as small microscopic silvery grains associated with chalcopyrite, dyscrasite, nickeline, skutterudite, tetrahedrite, ullmanite and willyamite.



BROCHANITITE

This green copper mineral was not of common occurrence in the oxidised portion of the Consols Lode and it was only encountered in very shallow levels where it formed crusts on vanadinite in vugs in the limonite (Smith, 1926).



BROMARGYRITE

During the early operations of the A.B.H. Consols Mine, small transparent orange-yellow cubic octahedral crystals were encountered in the gossan of the upper levels of the oxidsed zone of the Consls Lode in association with the much more common chlorargyrite. George Smith analysed these minute orange yellow crystals and determined that the two main elements present were silver and bromine and so identified the mineral as being “bromyrite”, which is the old name for bromargyrite. According to Smith the mineral bromargyrite was not at all common in the A.B.H. Consols Mine and very few specimens of this mineral, if any at all, were collected and hence preserved.



CALCITE

The main lode of Broken Hill yielded the best specimens of crystallised and coloured calcite but the mining in the A.B.H. Consols Mine occasionally encountered vugs that contained nice specimens of calcite. In the Consols Lode calcite was the main gangue mineral after siderite and the majority of calcite was massive in nature. The best calcite specimens from the A.B.H. Consols Mine were association specimens such as the brown rhombohedrons of siderite that were found with “white nail-head” calcite crystals. Vugs that were encountered occurring in the massive white calcite during mining operations of the A.B.H. Consols Mine contained very nice specimens of “rams horn” silver and crystals of stephanite. The massive white calcite of the A.B.H. Consols Mine also enclosed crystals of other minerals such as antimony, skutterudite and stibnite. This calcite could then be removed to expose the well formed and protected crystals of these more desirable minerals.



Capgaronnite

In 1922 George Smith published a description of a mineral that he had encountered in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine as follows:

“A bright red mineral which darkened to brown or black on exposure to sunlight. A mercury sulphide combined with a silver salt, possibly chloro-sulphide of silver and mercury.” (Smith, 1922). This mineral description fits the two unusual mercury minerals capgaronnite (HgS.Ag(Cl,Br,I) and perroudite (Hg5-XAg4+XS5-X(Cl,Br,I)4+X)

both of which were only characterised in the late 20th century.



CERUSSITE

The oxidised zone of the A.B.H. Consols Mine is not a noted locality for cerussite specimens as the larger nearby main Broken Hill orebody had world class specimens of this mineral present in its oxidised zone. In the A.B.H. Consols Mine cerussite was present mainly as earthy masses and finely crystallised material in association with the yellow canary ores of that mine.



CHALCOPYRITE

Chalcopyrite was a common primary ore mineral in the Consols Lode. Crystals of chalcopyrite were not common in either orebody but George Smith records the occurrence of lustrous golden yellow crystals to 1.2 cm being found lining vugs in siderite on sparse occasions during the mining operations of the A.B.H. Consols Mine (Smith, 1926).



Chalcostibite

Only one specimen is known that has tentatively been identified as being chalcostibite but there has been no scientific testing done to confirm the identity of this mineral species. This mineral specimen, that was collected from the A.B.H. Consols Mine in 1898, is in the mineral collection of the South Australian Museum and consists of radiating groups of 1 mm prismatic erythrite crystals associated with azurite, a grey mineral identified as being chalcostibite, dyscrasite, siderite and goethite. As gudmundite is thought to be one of the non silver bearing phases arising from the initial breakdown of tetrahedrite (Lawrence, 1968b) and it is possible that the chalcostibite is actually gudmundite.



Chenevixite

There is some doubt as to whether the analysis made by George Smith on the microcrystalline yellow green to green bunches on limonite that he collected from the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine were sufficient to identify this mineral as being chenevixite. Smith’s analysis showed the presence of copper, iron and arsenic, but unfortunately no specimens of this mineral are known to have survived to be tested with more modern procedures.



CHLORARGYRITE

If there is one silver mineral that is synonymous with Broken Hill then it has to be the silver chloride, chlorargyrite. This mineral was present in large commercial amounts in both the main Broken Hill lode and the Consols Lode. The chlorargyrite in the main Broken Hill lode was rich in bromine so was classed as being a bromian chlorargyrite whereas the chlorargyrite present in the Consols Lode was the chlorine rich end member with very little substitution of bromine for the chlorine. This pure chlorargyrite occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as translucent green masses up to 10 cm thick and 30 cm across. It was also found as crusts of octahedral crystals enclosed by iron oxides in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. Chlorargyrite was also found closely associated with dyscrasite and mixed in with bindheimite in the “silver chloro-antimoniate” specimens that were a main source of silver ore for the A.B.H. Consols Mine (Lawrence et al, 1999). This “silver chloro-antimoniate” was often found in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine as finely banded, sectile and light grey, that tarnished to brown, masses up to 0.35 tonnes in mass. These “silver chloro-antimoniate” masses was recognised by both George Smith and Pittman as being a mixture resulting from the alteration of dyscrasite. There were also minute particles of silver containing variable amounts of mercury (that were analysed by an electron microprobe and found to be the silver mercury alloy minerals almagam and luanheite) along with some unknown minerals present in these “silver chloro-antimoniate” masses as well (Lawrence et al, 1999). Chlorargyrite was also found in concretionary masses in association with chalcedonic quartz and as coralloidal forms.



Cinnabar

In his various papers on the mineralogy of the Broken Hill district George Smith reported on the presence of red photosensitive mercury bearing minerals from the oxidised zone of the Consols Lode that he identified as being cinnabar and I quote ‘ A bright red mineral which darkened to brown or black on exposure to sunlight. A mercury sulphide combined with a silver salt, possibly chloro-sulphide of silver and mercury.” (Smith, 1922). Red minerals of a similar type to these were reported from the oxidised zone of the main Broken Hill lode and recent work on these unusual minerals have identified two of them as being the rare species perroudite and capgaronnite. Smith was convinced that he had identified the mineral cinnabar as occurring in the lode of the A.B.H. Consols Mine but no one else who has worked on the minerals from this deposit has yet been able to confirm this identification that Smith made of these red photosensitive mercury minerals. More than likely the mercury that Smith found in these minerals was from these two very rare species and these are what were once present in the upper portion of the Consols Lode.



COBALTITE

In the A.B.H. Consols Mine cobaltite is a very rare mineral as it has only been identified by Cabri et al as a result of their study of the type specimen of willyamite and during the course of this investigation they found that the cobaltite occurs as narrow rims on ullmannite crystals (Cabri et al, 1970). The tin white crystals, veins and patches that occurred in the Consols Lode in close association with silver rich minerals such as dyscrasite and native silver that George Smith originally identified as being cobaltite have since proven to be skutterudite by more modern identification procedures.



Coccinite

Scarlet, non-photosensitive cubic crystals from the A.B.H. Consols Mine were described and identified as being mercuric iodide by Moses in 1901. Moses did not name this mineral but natural mercuric iodide is the mineral coccinite and if the chemical analysis by Moses was accurate then this is the mineral that he had. No other research workers have identified this mineral as occurring from the A.B.H. Consols Mine.



COSTIBITE

This mineral was identified as occurring in the Consols Lode in 1970 when Cabri et al were working on the type specimen of willyamite that George Smith had sent to Washington Roebling. During their investigation of the mineralogy of this specimen they found tabular greyish inclusions up to 0.2x1.4 mm that was a new cobalt antimony sulphide mineral in the lollingite rim of a large willyamite-ullmanite crystal. They named this mineral cstibite after its composition and the A.B.H. Consols Mine is the type locality for this mineral.



COVELLITE

Covellite was an uncommon mineral in the A.B.H. Consols Mine and it was found only in the upper levels of the mine as an earthy blue alteration of tetrahedrite in association with acanthite and unaltered tetrahedrite.



DYSCRASITE

If the A.B.H. Consols Mine had been discovered today then there would have been no need to mine its orebody for its silver content as the specimen value of its minerals, particularly that of the mineral dyscrasite, would have been worth more than the entire output of its silver. George Smith wrote, in 1926, about a mass of dyscrasite that was encountered during mining operations:

“One mass was estimated in situ at 30 cwt (about 1524 kg), but was certainly larger, being frozen on the footwall it had to be blasted off, which broke out the largest middle portion. This was again broken for convenience in handling, and after several large pieces were taken from it, the thickest part could not be further reduced in size, although explosives were used……A portion still glistened in the face of the stope from which this mass had been broken and other large pieces from it were subsequently obtained” (Smith, 1926). Smith also records the fact that “in the large silver bearing deposits of the A.B.H. Consols Mine the dyscrasite was generally found overlying the stromeyerite and that both minerals were known to completely occupy the fissure, with no associated gangue minerals present at all, being separated from the walls by a thin band of flucan” (Smith 1931).

In the primary zone of the Consols Lode the dyscrasite occurred as distinct crystals embedded in white calcite and brown siderite. Common habits of these crystals included striated cylindrical prisms terminated by a basal plane or a bulbous enlargement that were up to 5 cm in length. These cylindrical prisms often formed V shaped twins as well. Quite often the crystals of dyscrasite were also found in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as bundles of vertically striated, short and stubby, flattened or elongate prismatic forms, pseudohexagonal platy crystals with striations parallel to crystal margins; delicate groups of needle like prisms and equidimensional crystals that resembled rhombic dodecahedra (Birch, 1999). There was another variety of dyscrasite that occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as aborescent groups resembling native silver that may have been dyscrasite pseudomorphs after this metal (Smith, 1926). No analysis of this last one was actually made so there is some doubt as to its actual identity being dyscrasite as it is conjectured by others that it may have been only antimonial silver (Birch, 1999). Dyscrasite also occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as intergrowths with antimonial silver, in veinlets that consisted of dyscrasite-allargentum intergrowths and in a reaction zone between grains of silver and breithauptite (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).

Because the minerals allargentum, antimonal silver and dyscrasite are all similar in appearance in that they are silver white ductile metals then for identification purposes it is generally realised that from the A.B.H. Consols Mine the distinct silvery white crystals are dyscrasite with minor exsolved allargentum), while the massive silver white material is allargentum containing dyscrasite lamellae (Birch, 1999).

On many occasions in the A.B.H. Consols Mine the dyscrasite was often found altered due to the seepage of fluids from the hanging wall side of the orebody. This alteration often resulted in the dyscrasite becoming decomposed (oxidised) and changed partly or even completely into the “silver-chloro-antimoniate” minerals that were investigated by Lawrence et al in 1999. Where this change was incomplete then a core of unaltered dyscrasite remained but more often the alteration had fully occurred so all that remained was this yellowish green mixture of various silver and antimony oxide and chloride minerals.



ERYTHRITE

The cobalt mineral erythrite was not a common mineral in the shallow levels of the oxidised zone of the Consols Lode but a few specimens were collected in 1898. The mineral formed radiating sprays of bright pink prismatic crystals up to 1 mm in length that was implanted on limonite. It also occurred as a surface coating on primary cobalt bearing ores (Smith 1893a, 1926).



GALENA

Galena was not a common mineral in the A.B.H. Consols Mine when compared to the various silver minerals that were present in this lode. There was enough galena present in the Consols Lode to produce around 20 tonnes of pur lead once it had been mined and processed. The best specimens of A.B.H. Consols Mine galena, from the mineral collectors’ perspective, were the specimens consisting of crystals showing cube and octahedral faces that were sometimes encountered occurring in vugs whin the massive siderite.



GOETHITE

In the A.B.H. Consols Mine goethite was a very common constituent of the oxidised zone where it occurred at all levels throughout this zone. The best specimens of goethite were the yellowish brown pseudomorphs after siderite crystals that were collected by George Smith from the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine.



Gudmundite

Gudmundite is a rare iron antimony sulphide mineral that was only known as occurring rather sporadically in the main Broken Hill Lode. Its occurrence in the A.B.H. Consols Mine was reportedly attributed to the 1962 study made by Markham and Lawrence on the primary ore minerals of the Consols Lode and identified as being present in a small cavity in the siderite of the A.B.H. Consols Mine by these two workers (Birch, Chapman and Pekover, 1982, Birch, 1999) but the author could not find any reference at all to this mineral, as described above, in the 1962 paper written by Markham and Lawrence and published in the Proceedings Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy No 201. Gudmundite was not listed as being a constituent of the primary minerals in recorded list of minerals in the Markham and Lawrence 1962 paper nor has it been listed in any other papers by Lawrence (1968b, 1999 (with Ramsden and Graham) as being a primary mineral present in the A.B.H. Consols Mine and so this author has to seriously doubt that its presence in the Consols Lode was actually detected and confirmed by Markham and Lawrence back in the early 1960’s when they conducted this study of the primary mineralogy of the A.B.H. Consols Mine.



HEMATITE

In the Consols Lode hematite is an uncommon mineral that has been formed from the partial oxidation of primary magnetite and was only present in the oxidised ore found in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine as massive lumps.



Hemimorphite

Hemimorphite was mentioned as occurring in the oxidised zone of the A.B.H. Consols Mine (Plimmer, 1982) but the author has found no further reference to this mineral in any of the literature that he has read on this mine nor has he seen any specimens of A.B.H. Consols Mine hemimorphite in any of the collections that he has looked at for this report. George Smith reports in his Appendix IV to “The Geology of the Broken Hill District” that the oxidised zinc mineral present in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine was “calamine” which in fact probably referred to the zinc carbonate rather than the zinc silicate since back then that name covered both of these zinc minerals and Smith predominately used the term for smithsonite.



IODARGYRITE

The bright yellow silver iodide mineral, iodargyrite, formed the largest individual deposits of this mineral known from the Broken Hill region when it was encountered in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. Here it occurred sometimes as yellow masses and translucent crystals but its main occurrence was as thick yellowish encrustations on patches of silver ore (Smith, 1893a). Iodargyrite was the mineral that helped establish the A.B.H. Consols Mine as a rich silver mine during its early days of operation as many bags of pure iodargyrite were extracted and sent to the smelter for its silver values. Possible the richest concentration of iodargyrite encountered during mining operations of the Consols Lode occurred when a thin vein of pyrite was followed with a crosscut from the 4th level of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. The minerals that were encountered during the mining of this vein included chlorargyrite, acanthite, dyscrasite, silver, stephanite and iodargyrite in the form of loose granules which could be scooped out of vugs in the vein (Smith, 2000).



JALPAITE

The rather rare silver sulphide mineral, Jalpaite, has been found in the oxidised zone of the Consols Lode as a bluish or greenish black massive mineral and inter-grown with chalcopyrite as rough dark grey crystals up to 8 mm in diameter on siderite in association with native silver and chlorargyrite (Birch, 1999).



KERMESITE

Kermesite was encountered during early mining operations in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine as small clusters of cheery red acicular crystals associated with native antimony and stibnite (Smith, 1922 and 1926). It was also recorded as occurring in the shallow levels of the Consols Lode as maroon granular aggregates in calcite associated with antimonial silver (Lawrence, 1968b).



LOLLINGITE

In the primary ore from the A.B.H. Consols Mine, lollingite was found as small twinned prismatic crystals up to 0.5 mm across, as rosettes of crystals in skutterudite, as inclusions in tetrahedrite and also as inclusions within stibarsen-antimony intergrowths (Birch, 1999). The 1961 study by Markham and Lawrence also found that Lollingite also occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as cores of diamond shaped composite arsenopyrite-lollingite crystals within the ore from the Consols lode (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



LUANHEITE

The very rare silver-mercury-alloy mineral, luanheite was identified in a study that was made on the oxidised products of dyscrasite (Lawrence et al, 1999). The identification was based on X-ray diffraction results as well as microprobe analysis and the luanheite occurs as small grains along with almagam, in association with impure chlorargyrite and stibiconite, in the dark grey earthy alteration products of the dyscrasite that was called “silver chloro-antimoniate” by the early workers on the mineralogy of the Consols Lode suvh as Pittman and Smith.



MAGNETITE

Magnetite was a primary mineral that occurred as fine grained subhedral aggregates along the margins of a veinlet that contained abundant secondary acanthite (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



MALACHITE

Malachite was recorded by Smith as occurring in the upper levels of the oxidised zone of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. The Consols Lode was not noted for its specimens of malachite as it only occurred in it as drusy crystals and green crusts implanted on gossan.



MARCASITE

Marcasite was recorded by Markham and Lawrence as occurring as microscopic grains in the secondary mineral assemblage of the supergene zone of the Consols Lode in the study that they completed on the primary minerals of the A.B.H. Consols Mine.



MOLYBDENITE

Molybdenite was not a common mineral in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as it was only found on sporadic occasions in the cross vein that contained the minerals that made up the Consols Lode (Smith, 1922).



NICKELINE

A pale copper-red nickel arsenide that was present in small irregular patches in the Consols Lode was identified as being “kupfernickel” by George Smith. “Kupfernickel” was the old obsolete name for nickeline and this mineral was found enclosed in calcite, primarily associated with willyamite, in the siderite zone of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. The 1960’s study of the primary mineralogy of the Consols Lode showed that these irregular patches of nickeline were made up of fine grained complex assemblages that included not only the nickeline but also breithauptite, chalcopyrite, dyscrasite, silver, skutterudite and tetrahedrite (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



Paracostibite

Very fine silver white grains of a cobalt antimony sulphide that was identified as being paracostibite was mentioned by Brian Mason in his paper on Broken Hill (Mason, 1976). Lawrence, Ramsden and Graham also included this mineral in the table of primary minerals of the Consols Lode in their 1999 paper with no clarification as to whether its identification has been confirmed by analytical means (Lawrence, Ramsden and Graham, 1999). So it appears that the actual confirmation of this very rare mineral species, paradocrasite, as occurring with the other primary ore minerals in the Consols Lode does need to happen.



PARADOCRASITE

This mineral is the second new species to be identified from specimens in the Washington Roebling mineral collection that were obtained by him in exchanges conducted by George Smith. Once again the availability of new analytical procedures allowed mineralogists to analyse very small grains and to determine just how uniform their compositions are. The mineral paradocrasite was actually discovered during 1973 in the investigation of dyscrasite specimens that were required for comparison with some antimony bearing minerals from Idaho, U.S.A. It occurred in the study specimen as an aggregate of brilliant silver white stubby prisms up to 0.5 millimetres in length imbedded in calcite associated with stibarsen and partially replaced by antimony rich lollingite. Some prisms of paradocrasite are striated parallel to the long axes, and a few prisms are curved. The ends of most paradocrasite prisms are rough. The type specimen of paradocrasite is preserved as part of the Roebling mineral collection in the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) and the registration number of this specimen is R419. When this mineral was originally recognized as being a new species back in 1971 there was some confusion as to its exact locality as Professor Laurie Lawrence thought that this particular specimen was actually from the Lucknow mine at Orange in New South Wales. It is now universally accepted that the ABH Consols Mine is the type locality for this very rare mineral species and also that it is most likely that George “Specimen” Smith collected this type specimen as well.



Perroudite

This mineral is possibly one of the red photosensitive mercury-silver-halide minerals that George Smith came across whilst mining the ore from the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine .



PHOSGENITE

The main lead carbonate mineral that was present in the A.B.H. Consols Mine was phosgenite. The occurrence of this rather rare mineral in reasonable quantities is not so surprising as there was large amounts of carbonate present in the primary ore and obviously there was also a large amount of chlorine present as well, as evidenced by the amounts of chlorargyrite that was also present in the upper levels of the Consols Lode. In the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine a yellowish cream massive form was collected and reported by George Smith (Smith, 1893). Well formed stubby tetragonal prisms of phosgenite, that were up to 8 mm long, were found in cavities lined with goethite and galena in the oxidised zone of the Consols Lode. These phosgenite crystals had pyramidal and pinacoid terminations and were varying in colour from colourless to yellowish white and dark grey (Anderson, 1909).

Surviving specimens of phosgenite that have been preserved in institutional collections here in Australia show several generations of phosegenite crystals intergrown with cerussite, chlorargyrite and vanadinite (Birch, 1999).



PROUSTITE

Very nice bright red hexagonal prisms of proustite up to 1 cm in length were found on quite a few occasions in the siderite from the primary ore zone of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. The proustite from the A.B.H. Consols Mine occurred in association with pyrargyrite and unfortunately not two many association specimens of these two species were saved from the A.B.H. Consols Mine, even by that magpie collector, George “Specimen” Smith.



PYRARGYRITE

The most common ruby silver sulphosalt to occur in the primary ore minerals of the Consols Lode was pyrargyrite, where it was first found and recorded as occurring in the Broken Hill district by George “Specimen” Smith in 1890. In the A.B.H. Consols Mine the pyrargyrite occurred as beautiful clusters of lustrous dark red hexagonal prisms on calcite or siderite. These pyrargyrite crystals were terminated by flattened trigonal pyramids and proustite was quite often a very pretty associated mineral. Pyrargyrite also occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as solid blocks, fine dendritic forms and as films on siderite cleavages. In their now classic study of the primary ore minerals occurring in the Consols Lode, Markham and Lawrence (1962) found that the mineral pyrargyrite occurred in association with a wide range of minerals in the primary ore zone. These primary minerals that were associated with the pyrargyrite included argentopyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, pyrite, stephanite and tetrahedratite and that the pyrargyrite was present as replacement veinlets, intergrowths and composite grains (Markham and Lawrence, 1962). .



PYRITE

For a common mineral pyrite was of rather uncommon occurrence in the primary ore zone of the Consols Lode. It was found mainly as small grains in association with pyrargyrite and tetrahedrite. It was also found as attractive crusts of drusy crystals implanted on both calcite and siderite crystals. As far the author knows no good specimens of large pyrite crystals were ever found in the A.B.H. Consols Mine. Granular pyrite of secondary origin was quite often found in association with acanthite and stephanite in the small veinlets that these minerals were often found to occur in (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



PYROLUSITE

Pyrolusite was the main manganese mineral to be found occurring in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. Here it occurred as stalactitic clusters of small steel grey crystals that were attached to goethite pseudomorphs after siderite crystals.



PYROSTILPNITE

The very uncommon silver sulphosalt, pyrostilpnite was a very rare mineral in the primary ore zone of the Consols Lode where it was identified in the study made by Markham and Lawrence on the primary ore minerals. In there observations of the ore mineralogy of the A.B.H. Consols Mine Markham and Lawrence found that the pyrostilpnite formed aggregates of slender prismatic crystals averaging around 1.2 mm in length and 0.2 mm in width. The associated minerals identified by Markham and Lawrence as occurring with the pyrostilpnite were acanthite and stephanite (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



Pyrrhotite

Smith noted in his 1922 paper on the minerals of the A.B.H. Consols Mine that the mineral pyrrhotite was present as small brassy yellow grains in the primary ore of the Consols Lode, but its presence could not be detected in the exhaustive study of the primary minerals made by Markham and Lawrence so its presence in the Consols Lode does need further verification.



QUARTZ

Quartz was not a very common mineral in the A.B.H. Consols Mine and was mainly found here in a chalcedonic form in the oxidised zone of the upper levels of this mine. On rare occasions it was found as small crystals in cavities of the calcite-siderite gangue.



SAFFLORITE

In their investigation of the primary minerals of the Consols Lode, Markham and Lawrence described some lustrous silver grey grains forming rosettes in skutterudite and identified them as being a cobalt bearing lollingite, but whether the composition of this mineral reached that of safflorite is not known so far (Markham and Lawrence, 1962). In 1990 Dr Alan Pring examined by X-ray diffraction a purported specimen of willyamite in the recently donated Doug Barratt mineral collection and found that it was safflorite (Pring, 1990), thus confirming the presence of this mineral in the Consols orebody.



SIDERITE

Without doubt the most common mineral that occurred in the A.B.H. Consols Mine would have to be siderite as this was the mineral that enclosed pretty well all the other primary minerals that occurred in the vein system that made up the primary ore zone of the Consols Lode. Where cavities occurred in the vein systems that contained this siderite then exquisite, lustrous, pale brown, interlocking rhonmbohedral crystals of siderite up to 1.5 cm on edge occurred. In some cases these crystals of siderite were intergrown with white snow white calcite crystals and both minerals were then speckled with small bright pyrite crystals and this resulted in spectacular mineral specimens, few of which were preserved. Probably the best specimen of this type was the 7x6 cm specimen that Albert Chapman had in his mineral collection (Plate 137 and 190 in both the 1982 and 1999 editions of the Minerals of Broken Hill). In the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine a number of specimens were encountered whereby these nice 1.5 cm rhonmbohedral crystals of siderite had been replaced by grotty old brown earthy goethite.



SILVER

The richest deposits of native silver in the Broken Hill region was the silver deposits encountered in the A.B.H. Consols Mine. Native silver was the common silver mineral encountered in the deeper depths of the A.B.H. Consols Mine. Here it occurred enclosed in white calcite and when the calcite was removed then superb crystallised specimens of native silver occurred. One amazing occurrence of this type was encountered during mining operations at a depth of 500 feet in the 5th level of A.B.H. Consols Mine when the miners came across a very large mass of native silver in which the calcite had been dissolved away by percolating solutions. This find was later described by George “Specimen” Smith and I quote:

“The crystals were often thick and solid, but did not exceed 2 inches (5 cm) in length; they were well formed, but not definite in their angles. They were often striated and resembled strands of parallel thread, the termination being irregular and ragged, as if there had been parallel growth of certain bunches of the thread which formed the crystal. A few had thrown off branches from the main stem, some were straight, many were doubled back on themselves, even the thickest were sometimes bent near the termination in such a manner as to suggest that much force had been used upon them. The bending, however, did not occur after the crystals were formed, but was part of their natural growth in which there is a constant tendency to assume a curling form. It was notable that the solutions which had removed the gunge (=enclosing calcite) had had no effect upon the silver, it was not even tarnished. The deposit yielded several hundredweight (about 150 kg) of pure silver.” (Smith, 2000).

The forms of native silver encountered in the mining of the minerals of the Consols Lode include films, plates, wires, curled rams horn shapes and aborescent masses. Some of the most aesthetic mineral specimens collected in the A.B.H. Consols Mine that contained native silver occurred when vugs were encountered in the calcite that contained curved and kinky silver crystals that was associated with nice black stephanite crystals. In the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine silver crystals were also encountered that were in association with bright yellow crystals of iodargyrite.

An antimonial silver that was closely associated with dyscrasite and allargentum was of common occurrence in the A.B.H. Consols Mine. In the silver ore of the A.B.H. Consols Mine this antimonial silver formed irregular masses along contacts between dyscrasite-allargentum and sulphides as well as segregation veinlets.



SKUTTERUDITE

The tin white to light steel grey cobalt arsenide, skutterudite, was of reasonably common occurrence in the primary ore zone of the Consols Lode as coarsely crystalline aggregates enclosed in the white calcite and brown siderite gangue. When it was first found it was originally identified by George Smith as being the mineral smaltite, which is the name that now refers to an arsenic deficient variety of skutterudite. Markham and Lawrence’s investigation of the primary ore minerals showed that this skutterudite contained abundant inclusions of the mineral lollingite which may have affected the results that smith obtained in his analysis of this mineral.

The very lustrous tin white dodecahedral crystals that George Smith originally identified as being cobaltite has turned out to be all skutterudite on the basis of testing specimens in the mineral collections of both the Australian Museum and the old Mining Museum using X-ray diffraction (Markham and Lawrence, 1962). It was the skutterudite that provide the cobalt or the formation of the minerals erythrite and sphaerocobaltite during the oxidation processes that the Consols Lode orebody has undergone.



SMITHSONITE

The mineral in the upper levels of the oxidised zone of the A.B.H. Consols Mine that George Smith identified as being “calamine” is more than likely to be smithsonite rather than the hemimorphite as thought by other authors (Plimmer, 1982). The reason for this supposition is that the Consol’s Lode had large amounts of carbonate present in the primary ore zone in the form of calcite and siderite and so the carbonated anion is more likely to be present in the altering solutions acting on the primary minerals thus forming smithsonite rather than the much rarer silicate anion that would form hemimorphite. Also Smith’s use of the term “calamine” predominately referred to the mineral smithsonite in his earlier mineral descriptions.



Sphaerocobaltite

Pink smears on skutterudite from the A.B.H. Consols Mine were tentatively identified by Markham and Lawrence as being the cobalt carbonate, sphaerocobaltite during their investigated of the minerals of the Consols Lode. They named this mineral cobaltocalcite but did not provide any confirming evidence for its identification so the actual presence of the mineral sphaerocobaltite in the Consols Lode does need verification.



SPHALERITE

The zinc mineral sphalerite was never very abundant in the primary ore zone of the Consols Lode, as compared to the amounts of this mineral present in the nearby main Broken Hill lode. The sphalerite in the A.B.H. Consols Mine occurred as disseminated blebs and grains distributed amongst the other primary ore minerals with the most being encountered in the cross vein (Smith, 1922). No crystals of sphalerite were ever recorded as being found during the mining operations of the A.B.H. Consols Mine and even in the main Broken Hill lode crystals of this mineral were very scarce and seldom encountered during the mining operations of that immense orebody.



STEPHANITE

The A.B.H. Consols Mine was the main source of the rare mineral stephanite for the district and within the primary zone of the Consols Lode, stephanite occurred as well crystallised aggregates in a number of places. Stephanite is almost invariably present in any specimens that contained pyrargyrite and pyropstilpnite. The stephanite crystals from the A.B.H. Consols Mine also commonly contained very small veinlets of acanthite. The stephanite was often found in this mine as clusters of small and sometimes curved pseudohexagonal lead grey to black plates that were often occurring in partially altered siderite and calcite. Other forms of this mineral noted by George Smith include perfect, but very fragile, platy crystals that formed stalactitic aggregates up to 7 cm in length in some places and lustrous clusters of striated pseudohexagonal prisms sitting on the drusy siderite crystals. Some of the best and most spectacular specimens encountered in the vugs of white calcite disclosed during mining operations in the A.B.H. Consols Mine were the stepped smooth-faced prisms of stephanite in association with “rams horn” native silver. Sometimes platy masses of intergrown stephanite crystals were also recovered as well.

The breakdown of argentopyrite in the supergene zone of the Consols Lode resulted in assemblages being formed that included stephanite in association with acanthite, pyargyrite, pyrite and pyrostilpnite (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



Sternbergite

Sternbergite is a very rare silver iron sulphide that was identified as occurring in the Consols Lode at a depth of 45 m by George Smith in 1893. The mineral that Smith described formed very soft, sectile, brownish bronze masses which rapidly tarnished violet blue (Smith, 1893). These masses were attached to masses of dyscrasite, with some associated pyrargyrite, in a calcite-siderite gangue and subsequent X-ray diffraction testing of this mineral identified it as being the even rarer dimorph, argentopyrite (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



STETEFELDTITE

In the upper levels of the Consols Lode there occurred a bright canary yellow antimony oxide powder that was associated with altered galena and brownish globules of vanadinite that was identified by X-ray diffraction testing to be the rare mineral, stetefeldtite, when a specimen (M10591) containing this association in the mineral collection of Museum Victoria was tested using this method (Birch et al, 1982).



STIBARSEN

In the Consols Lode stibarsen occurs as silver –grey metallic patches intergrown with native antimony and the stibarsen is the dominant phase whereas the antimony forms grain boundary exsolution bodies. Its occurrence in the primary mineralogy of the Consols Lode was first described by Markham and Lawrence and they believe that that these stibarsen-antimony intergrowths are due to the unmixing of an originally homogenous antimony-arsenic compound during the cooling process (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



STIBICONITE

Stibiconite was one of these earthy antimony oxides that was originally identified by George Smith, and confirmed by the investigation conducted by Lawrence et al (1999), as occurring in the upper levels of the Consols Lode as yellowish orange powdery masses associated with chlorargyrite. There has been some previous doubt cast on this identification (Birch, 1999) due to the fact that many of the antimony oxide compounds are the same colour and earthy in appearance, along with bindheimite and the jarosite group minerals. As stibiconite has now been proven to definitely exist in the main lode (Birch and Henry private communication) also detected by the investigation made by Lawrence et al (1999) then this author sees no reason to not include its presence in the Consols Lode.



STIBNITE

Stibnite was not a common mineral in the primary ore of the Consols Lode and was first noted by Smith in 1893 as fine acicular crystals on siderite associate with arsenopyrite (Smith, 1893a). Sheaf like to radial aggregates of acicular, dark grey stibnite crystals associated with native antimony in a calcite-siderite gangue were described by Markham and Lawrence as result of their investigation of the primary ore mineralogy of the A.B.H. Consols Mine (Markham and Lawrence, 1962).



STILPNOMELANE

A shiny black amorphous mineral that was enclosed in siderite was identified by Smith as being stilpnomelane and described as such in various papers that he published (Smith, 1922, 1926). Other research investigators such as Markham and Lawrence have accepted this identification (Markham and Lawrence, 1962) but others such as Dr Bill Birch are not too happy with it as the analysis conducted and published by George Smith did not show the presence of any potassium, which is a main element that needs to be present for the mineral to be stilpnomelane (Birch, 1982).



Stromeyerite

Large masses of a dull bluish to greenish black supergene silver sulphide mineral was encountered in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine by the miners when mining first started to penetrate into the Consols Lode. George Smith identified these dull bluish to greenish black supergene silver sulphide masses as stromyerite based on an assayed value of 51% silver for clean ore of this type, which is very close to the theoretical silver content of stromeyerite (Smith, 1922). Later investigators tested all the stromyerite specimens from the A.B.H. Consols Mine present in institutional mineral collections such as those of the Australian Museum, the Mining Museum, both of which are in Sydney, and the Museum Victoria in Melbourne and found that the mineral present was not stromeyerite but either acanthite (Markham and Lawrence, 1962) or jalpaite (Birch, 1982). There is now very good reason to doubt that this mineral was ever present in the ore of the Consols Lode even though its presence has been confirmed in the nearby main Broken Hill Lode (Birch, 1999).



SULPHUR

Bright yellow, rounded crystals implanted on cerussite crystals collected from the vugs in the limonite of the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine have been identified as being sulphur. Its presence in this mine was also recorded by George Smith, who described the sulphur as being spongy yellow masses on galena (Smith, 1893a, 1926).



TETRAHEDRITE

In the Consols Lode tetrahedrite was a reasonably common mineral as it was found throughout the lode. At shallow depths the terahedrite formed patches with the other silver minerals in the limonite (Smith, 1893a, 1926). In the deeper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine the tetrahedrite was invariably associated with other sulphide minerals that included arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite. Other associations noted include terahedrite-breithauptite-niccolite-silver and sometimes the tetrahedrite had also undergone replacement by pyrargyrite. When this replacement of tetrahedrite by pyrargyrite has occurred then the silver mineral stephanite is usually an association of this as well (Markham and Lawrence, 1962). In the zone of oxidation the tetrahedrite has undergone extensive replacement by covellite. As a source of silver tetrahedrite was not as important in the A.B.H. Consols Mine as it was in the orebodies of the main broken Hill lode where it was the most important primary silver mineral, especially in the lead lodes. In the A.B.H. Consols Mine the tetrahedrite was only the third most important source of silver as the silver content of the dyscrasite and acanthite minerals were of more importance to the company mining this orebody (Smith, 1922).



ULLMANNITE

Tin white to silver grey cobaltian ullmannite crystals up to 3 cm on edge and even larger coarse massive aggregates enclosed in calcite and or siderite have been collected from the A.B.H. Consols Mine. These cubic ullmannite crystals have a perfect cleavage on (100) and also form assemblages with fine grained breithauptite and niccolite. Other associations of the ullmannite from the A.B.H. Consols Mine identified by Cabri et al (1970) during their investigation include cobaltite, costibite, lollingite, pyargyrite and native silver. When the first specimen of ullmannite was first collected from the 45 m level of the A.B.H. Consols Mine back in 1893 it was thought to be a new mineral and named willyamite (Pittman 1894). The name willyamite was then discarded in favour of cobaltian ullmannite and it was not until the investigation of Cabri et al (1970) on this original specimen that George Smith had sent to Washington Roebling in the interim, was the name willyamite established as a valid species. Most of the ullmannite-willyamite specimens from the A.B.H. Consols Mine in collections today will be ullmannite as the willyamite is only found as small rims around the edge of the ullmannite crystals and this is usually where the cobalt content is greater than the nickel content.



UNKNOWN 1

An unusual mineral phase present in a specimen of galena from the A.B.H. Consols Mine that was originally in the mineral collection of the late Laurie Lawrence has been determined to be a new mineral species and is currently under investigation by a group of scientists. The entire mineral collection of Laurie Lawrence was purchased by the Sydney mineral dealer Peter Beckwith and it was he that recognized that this mineral was unusual and so passed this specimen on to the relevant personal for characterisation



VANADINITE

The mineral vanadinite is an unusual one as it was found in the upper levels of the A.B.H. Consols Mine but as yet has not been confirmed as occurring in the oxidised zone of the main Broken Hill Lode. The vanadinite that occurred in the upper portions of the Consols Lode was found deposited as fibrous botryoidal and cauliflower crusts upon goethite pseudomorphs after siderite. Altered galena and stetefeldtite were the only associated minerals found with this vanadinite.



WILLYAMITE

The very rare tin white to steel grey mineral, willyamite, was the first new species to be described from the Consols Lode and its status as a new mineral species was not very long as soon after its description as a new species it was discredited as only being a cobaltian variety of ullmannite (Pittman, 1894). An investigation by Cabri et al (1970) on the original type specimen of willyamite, that was now in the mineral collection of the Smithsonian Institution, established the validity of this species. These researchers found that there was a rim around the ullmannite crystals in the original specimen that had a ratio of cobalt to nickel that was larger than a 50 to 50 ratio. They also found that the crystals of the mineral with this larger cobalt ratio were in fact no longer cubic but a pseudocubic shape that was more in line with being monoclinic. So willyamite is now defined as being the mineral where its cobalt content is more than its nickel content and its crystal system is monoclinic.



Wollastonite

A white fibrous mineral collected from the eastern section of the A.B.H. Consols Mine’s lease was identified by George Smith in 1892 as being wollastonite. Even though the presence of wollastonite has been verified in the orebody of the main Broken Hill lode it has not confirmed from the Consols Lode. Therefore some doubt must be cast on its actual presence in this orebody as no other reference has ever been made to this species in all the various mineral descriptions of the minerals occurring in the Consols Lode.



Table 1

Primary Minerals Present in the Consols Lode, Broken Hill, New South Wales.



Table 2

Secondary Minerals Present in the Consols Lode, Broken Hill, New South Wales.



Table 3

Minerals that might be Present in the Consols Lode, Broken Hill, New South Wales (These all need further Verification).



Table 4

Paragenetic sequence of most of the primary minerals in the lode of the Australian Broken Hill Consols Mine, Broken Hill, New South Wales.



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