Crocoite

specimen number:
2292451

location:
Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia

description:
Attractive orange red needlelike crystals of crocoite to 1.5 cm in length coming off matrix. Slight damage present, still very nice.

The Adelaide Mine in Dundas, Tasmania, is a historic mining site known for its complex geology within the Dundas Trough, a sedimentary basin characterized by Cambrian volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The primary mineralization is associated with hydrothermal systems that deposited lead, zinc, and silver ores, specifically through the fault-controlled emplacement of galena and secondary minerals within fractured rock. Mining operations began in the late nineteenth century as part of the broader regional silver-lead boom, which fundamentally shaped the development of the Tasmanian mining industry. The site gained international significance in the mineral collecting community for the discovery of rare, bright red crocoite, a lead chromate mineral that forms long, slender, and highly aesthetic crystals. These specimens, often associated with smaller crystals of cerussite or gibbsite, were recovered from pockets within the oxidized zones of the ore bodies, primarily during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

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