Pyromorphite with Malachite (ATES-0008)

specimen number:
9273132

location:
Brown's Prospect, Rum Jungle, Northern Territory, Australia

description:

Classic Australian specimen, this exhibiting a botryoidal deep green crystallized malachite, yellowish green sparkling micro crystals of pyromorphite scattered throughout. In excellent condition.

The Browns prospect, located near Batchelor in the Rum Jungle mineral field of the Northern Territory, Australia, is a major base metal deposit that has seen both historic exploration and modern open-pit test mining. Geologically, the deposit is situated within the Pine Creek Orogen along the contact between the Paleoproterozoic Whites Formation dolostone and the overlying Coomalie Dolomite. Hydrothermal fluids migrating through regional shear zones deposited extensive stratabound mineralization, creating a complex ore body rich in copper, lead, zinc, cobalt, and nickel sulfides, including chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, and siegenite, alongside secondary carbonate minerals in the oxidized upper zone. Discovered during the initial regional uranium rush in December 1949 by prospector Jack White, the site was extensively drilled and explored via a 400-foot underground exploratory shaft and crosscuts by Territory Enterprises Proprietary Limited, a subsidiary of Conzinc Riotinto of Australia, between 1954 and 1965. The project then sat idle for decades due to the fine-grained, metallurgically complex nature of the sulfide ore until Compass Resources acquired the property, initiating a trial open-pit mining operation at the Browns Oxide project which extracted lead and copper ore from 2007 until economic constraints and processing difficulties forced a suspension of operations in late 2008.

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