Witherite

specimen number:
8821941

location:
Rosebery Mine, West Coast, Tasmania, Australia

description:
Interesting locality example for the species, this a crystallized piece of witherite. The crystals are lustrous and slightly translucent.

The Rosebery Mine, located on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia, is one of the country's longest-running underground polymetallic mining operations. Its history began in 1893 when prospector Tom McDonald discovered gold in alluvial wash and zinc-lead sulphide boulders on the slopes of Mount Black. While initial development was severely delayed by complex metallurgical challenges in separating the exceptionally fine-grained sulphides, large-scale commercial production finally commenced in 1936 under the Electrolytic Zinc Company after effective processing techniques were established. Geologically, the deposit is a major Cambrian-aged volcanic-hosted massive sulphide system situated within the Mount Read Volcanics. The orebodies are hosted in a sequence of folded and faulted volcaniclastics and shales, yielding substantial quantities of zinc, lead, copper, silver, and gold.

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