Pyrolusite

specimen number:
2262370

location:
Central Balstrup mine, Zeehan, Tasmania, Australia

description:
Black botryoidal crystallized pyrolusite throughout matrix. In good condition, interesting locality example for the species.

The Central Balstrup mine, operated by the Central Balstrup Silver Mining Company, was established during the major late-nineteenth-century mining boom in the Zeehan mineral field of western Tasmania, Australia. Active primarily during the late 1880s and the 1890s, the site was opened to target the region's rich silver-lead lodes, though operations eventually wound down as shallow ore reserves were depleted and regional production faded heading into the twentieth century. Geologically, the area is situated within a complex zone of faulted and sheared sedimentary and volcanic host rocks intruded by Devonian igneous bodies. Mineralogically, the mine's deposits are characterized by fissure veins containing manganiferous siderite and quartz gangue, with valuable economic concentrations of argentiferous galena, sphalerite, pyrite, and associated sulfosalts typical of the Zeehan field.

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