Malachite with Cerussite, Pyromorphite

specimen number:
2292382

location:
Rum Jungle, Northern Territory, Australia

description:
Botryoidal crystallized green malachite in a cluster with large prismatic crystals of non-lustrous colorless cerussite. Minor pyromorphite is present. In good condition, classic material for this Australian locality.

The Rum Jungle mineral field, situated approximately 105 kilometers south of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, is located within the Paleoproterozoic Pine Creek Orogen. Geologically, the region features low-grade metamorphic sedimentary rocks folded around two ancient Archean granitic basement domes, known as the Rum Jungle and Waterhouse complexes. Economically significant uranium and copper mineralization is hosted primarily in the carbonaceous, pyritic schist of the Whites Formation near its contact with the underlying Coomalie Dolomite. While gold and copper were mined on a small scale in the late nineteenth century, the site gained major significance after 1949 when local prospector Jack White recognized uranium mineralization in the area. This discovery led to the opening of Australia's first large-scale uranium mine in 1954, which supplied nuclear material to the United States and Great Britain during the Cold War. Active mining ceased in 1963 and processing finished in 1971, leaving behind a legacy of severe acid mine drainage and heavy metal pollution in the Finniss River system that has required extensive government rehabilitation programs.

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