Luinaite is now considered a triclinc dimorph of schorl. Here as radiating groups of small grey to green acicular crystals with pale purple fluorite. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 60 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Radiating black needles of ludwigite and pale yellow pyroaurite-2H (sjögrenite) frozen in matrix. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 75 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny blue linarite crystals with grey reticulated cerussite and white sprays of dundasite. Ex Shane Dohnt. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 90 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny blue crystals of linarite with a green crust of brochantite. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 75 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny blue linarite crystals with green brochantite, white cerussite and possible ktenasite. Unidentified brown pseudomorph(?), perhaps originally a chlorite mineral? Width of view 6mm. Stack of 110 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Thin hexagonal plates of levyne. Nearby cavities have phillipsite or chabazite. Ex Mat Latham. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 110 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Reddish brown lepidocrocite on grey anglesite crystals. Ex Mark Hallam Collection. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 75 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Found in driveway gravel that was known to have come from the quarry. White flat-laying crystals of laumontite that fluoresces bluish-purple (best under medium wave) with small hematite crystals. Width of view 9mm and stack of 30 images (fluorescent image). Width of view 6mm and stack of 30 images (hematite)....
White (dehydrating) laumontite with colourless chabazite and stilbite. The laumontite is very unstable, and unfortunately not only breaks down itself, but also the matrix. Photo widths 6mm. Stack of 45 images (laumontite) and 65 images (chabazite). Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.
A mass of blue crystals on a small piece of matrix. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Cream kutnohorite with pyrite on a quartz matrix. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pink cobalt and nickel-bearing köttigite acicular crystals in a vein of sulphides – sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and arsenopyrite. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pink cobalt and nickel-bearing köttigite. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 60 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Brown topaz crystals embedded in white kaolinite on the side of a quartz crystal. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 32 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Black phenocrysts embedded in matrix. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 26 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Yellow crystalline material from within a quartz vein. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Osmiridium grains. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 20 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Rounded grains of osmiridium with sharp black crystals of chromite collected by Rusty Morley. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 20 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A jumble of intense red mostly terminated crocoite crystals. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Blocky colourless crystals. Ex Jo Price Collection. Width of view 14.5mm. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless to white hydromagnesite crystals on serpentine. Specimen measures 90x55x45mm. Close up photo width of view 6mm. Stack of 60 images. Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.
A ball of crystals of hydromagnesite with white pearly dypingite. Specimen Measures 60x40x15mm. Closeup photo width of view 6mm. Stack of 45 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A brown scheelite crystal with white calcite on silvery black hübnerite. Ex Mark Hallam Collection. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pale greenish-yellow cerussite crystals showing signs of reticulated twinning. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 44 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Lustrous black horizontally striated crystals with steep terminations. Analysed by Peter Elliott. Width of view 3mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Dark green to black hastingsite with purple fluorite and calcite that fluoresces orange. Width of view 6.5mm. Stack of 20 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Three pieces. Photo shows red-violet hardystonite(?), orange-red sphalerite, greenish-yellow smithsonite(?) and unknown bluish-white mineral. Longwave ultraviolet light. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 22 images. Click on the image for a higher resolution version.
Twinned harmotome, including “drill bit” habit. Width of view 2.5mm. Stack of 25 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
An efflorescence in a gel capsule. White halotrichite and pale yellow melanterite. Identified by Ralph Bottrill. Width of view 7.25mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Crude cubes of halite found on the protected underside of a piece of broken crockery at a location known as “Treasure Beach”. Here, broken crockery and glass had been dumped in the early days of Old Hobart Town. Width of view 14.5mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image...
A classic and really cute example of epitaxy. Chalcopyrite epitaxial on a sphalerite crystal. And to add to the cuteness, there are some tiny tetrahedrite crystals bottom left of photo. Width of view 6mm. Stack of 28 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny sprays of post-mining gypsum crystals collected on the dumps. Look closely and you can some fishtail twins (eg: near the centre of the photo). Width of view 9mm. Stack of 55 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Cream ball of gyrolite with white tacharanite on colourless phillipsite. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 80 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny off-white scheelite crystals (not in photo) and pale green grossular garnets. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Small grey-green grossular garnets with white wollastonite and yellow-orange vesuvianite. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Olivine-green crude crystals of grossular embedded in magnetite. Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A twinned yellow crystal on gossan. There looks to be a possible arsenopyrite crystal that perhaps the cerussite seeded on. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 25 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Green partial coating on sphalerite crystals on dolomite. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 40 images. Off white fluorescence under longwave ultraviolet may be calcite partially coating dolomite. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Purplish-grey grimaldiite in a crocoite vugh. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 35 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Yellow exsolution of greenockite-hawleyite on sphalerite. Width of view 9mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Greenockite as a yellow coating/exsolution on sphalerite crystals. Some tiny orange crystals of greenockite evident particularly in the bottom left-hand quadrant (zoom in to explore). Width of view 7.75mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
From the mine best known for its crocoite comes a rarer occurrence, zoned mimetite crystals. There are interesting rounded surface features too. Probably where the mimetite was attached to ferro-manganese oxides. Hexagonal prisms of zoned mimetite on a small amount of gossan. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 45 images....
A group of cube-octahedral galena crystals with hoppered faces. Width of view 8mm. Stack of 45 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Olive green cubes partially coated by goethite. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 32 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A mass of acicular metallic wires on quartz. Ex John Haupt. Width of view 5.5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Iridescent stannite, no crystals. Ex David J. Eicher Collection, Wisconsin. Ex John H. Eicher Collection. Width of view 5.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Transparent green hexagonal prisms, some zoned. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Acicular intergrowth of white gonnardite-natrolite on grey botryoidal thomsonite-Ca. Width of view 3.5mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pale fluorite over earlier darker fluorite with iron stained quartz crystals. Width of view 5.5mm. Stack of 92 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Hexagonal crystal of molybdenite. Width of view 5.5mm. Stack of 34 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A waterworn bluish topaz 24mm wide.
Hexagonal crystal with a white core and a lustrous colourless outer layer. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
This crystal is coloured by hematite. On colourless analcime. A nearby cavity has a colourless calcite crystal. Width of view 4.5mm. Stack of 90 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Prismatic gmelinite crystals. Width of view 4.5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Highly lustrous colourless gmelinite crystals. Width of view 3mm. Stack of 30 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A mass of silver needles of franckeite with black sphalerite, purple fluorite, tan magnesite, and not in photo, pyrite. Width of view 17.25mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A mass of silver needles of franckeite with a little purple fluorite and tan magnesite. Specimen measures 55x40x20mm. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Brown to black tourmaline crystals, probably schorl or fluor-schorl, but could also be foitite based on recent analyses of tourmalines from this area. Specimen measures 22x18x17mm. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Silver metallic bismuthinite on green fluorite that fluoresces under longwave UV. Specimen measures 13x15x7mm. Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.
Dark purple, almost black botryoidal fluorite. Specimen measures 20x18x8mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Hackly silver-rich gold in fluorite. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Hackly silver-rich gold in mostly grey fluorite with a hint of purple. Width of view 17.25mm. Stack of 100 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless fluorite cubes that fluoresce blue under longwave ultraviolet, partially coated with siderite. Tiny pyrite crystals also present. Width of view 11.5mm. Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.
Given the name “Lost City of Bischoff” when I first found it, this is one side of a ferroan magnesite crystal that had grown up against stepped fluorite that is no longer there. The core of this specimen is a fairly thick seam of fluorite that fluoresces strongly. Click on...
A lot happening on this specimen. In the white light photo, you can see tabular pale blue hexagonal fluorapatite crystals with muscovite mica, and brown areas appear to be goethite coating cassiterite. In the longwave UV photo, the apatite crystals are pink zoned with a hint of orange. There is...
Small speck of gold in iron ore. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Slightly yellowish tabular crystals of hydroxyapophyllite-(K) on colourless phillipsite. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 150 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Lustrous cassiterite crystals and luinaite on and in quartz. Tiny rosettes of tan siderite on the cassiterite. Ex Mark Hallam Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 110 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Creamy white pearly ferroaluminoceladonite with blue beryl and grey sellaite on a skeletal quartz matrix. Width of view 32mm. Stack of 75 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Tiny prismatic sprays of dark green-black crystals. Width of view 8.63mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pink grains of eudialyte or manganoeudialyte with/in andradite, and phenocrysts of sanidine in a green groundmass. Other species likely present but would need analysis to confirm. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 75. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Hexagonal silver crystals with other manganese phases. 2022 mining. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 62 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
2022 production. Crystals 22mm long. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
2022 production. Longest crystal is 30mm. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Non-descript looking material. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 70 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A green epidote crystal impaled on pyrite, all on dark brown andradite garnet. Presumably, the epidote interrupted the growth of the pyrite. Width of view 5.75mm. Stack of 110 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
White botryoidal spheres, some coloured green by nickel. Ex Joan Lamond Collection, Acquired by Joan Lamond in 1989 from John Haupt. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 85 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
White acicular clusters of dundasite with minor red crocoite. This photo clearly shows the challenge of getting clean specimens from the gossans of the mines in the area! Type Locality for dundasite. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 150 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Clusters of snow-white crystals on prismatic orange crocoite. Width of view 17.25mm. Stack of 100 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Pale green to white balls of dypingite in serpentine. Ex Jack Leach Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 40 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Creamy balls of dundasite with bright white tips to the crystals, and a few tiny crocoite crystals. Labelled as Red Lead Mine, this is clearly a Kapi Mine specimen. Ex Jo Price Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 91 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution...
Collected 2/2005. Brown prismatic tourmaline crystals, visually identified by Ralph Bottrill as dravite at the time of collecting, but not analysed to my knowledge. Probably better described as dravite-schorl series. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 49 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Colourless quartz with yellow dolomite and minor pyrite. Specimen measures 28x33x10mm.
Dickite as tiny white tabular crystals on boulangerite and coating fluorite, with tan magnesite. Ex Margaret Brown Collection. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 90 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
White dickite (analysed) with tan siderite and colourless quartz. Specimen is 56mm wide. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Blocky zoned crystals from the original find of stolzite at Kara. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 100 images.
Red danalite with some crystal faces, frozen in matrix with magnetite and fluorite. Specimen measures 62x46x40mm. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Although Mount Lyell is a copper mine, cuprite is not that common. This specimen has black slightly rounded crystals. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 50 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Single red crystal 27mm long. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
White to green fibres in a vein in serpentine. Width of view 17.25mm. Stack of 29 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
A waterworn green chrysoberyl crystal. It is weak red under longwave UV. Width of view 11.5mm. Stack of 25 images. Click on the image below for a higher resolution version.
Brian Smith from the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston, Tasmania, identified the specimens below as belonging to a member of the Helicopsychidae family, a species of caddis fly larvae. Instead of the tube shaped homes that are normally built, these little critters have developed a shell-shape, mimicking a very different animal,...
