 |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
| Widgiemoolthalite Walkabout (Continued)
The 132 North mine is located 4 km southwest of Widgiemooltha. It was discovered in the late 1960's during Australia's nickel boom. Recent rumors indicated that the dumps were "gone" with the remaining stockpiles processed due to rising nickel prices. However, arriving at the site, Ray commented that little had changed over the past 2 years. The discovery and description of Widgiemoolthalite in 1993 involved very small clusters of crystals (1 to 2 mm) from a single boulder. This boulder was acquired by a private collector, and no additional material has been reported. So, the probability of digging up a new specimen amidst all the huge piles of rocks was fairly low. There are, however, lots of other colorful green minerals, such as Gaspéite, Paratacamite and Carrboydite. It was a great experience exploring around and collecting at this site. |
Back in Perth, Ray arranged a meeting at the Western Australian
Museum to discuss a new mineral that we encountered during our travels.
It looked like blue lepidolite. Our group was greeted by Dr. Bevan
who provided a personal tour of the museum's mineral collection and exhibits.
We visited the museum's back rooms where the collection is cataloged and stored.
 Ray and Dr. Bevan examine some of the WA Museum's minerals |
||||||||||||
360 degree panorama of the 132 North Nickel mine dumps |
|||||||||||||
After visiting the 132 North mine, our group headed north on a big looping
tour of Western Australia. We collected at a variety of locations including
Ora Banda (opalite), Yerilla Station (chrysoprase), Teutonic Bore (native copper and carbonate minerals), Yinnetharra (dravites, magnetite, staurolite, garnets, etc),
and Mooka Station (jasper and peanut wood). The trip concluded with some
quick sightseeing around Shark Bay (stromatolites), Kalbarri National Park (parrots
and ocean cliffs), and Nambung National Park (the "Pinnalces").
 Our grand tour of Western Australia |
Part of the tour included a demonstration of the
collection's computerized database, and I asked about Widgiemoolthalite. This
query returned information on the specimen's whereabouts, and a visit to the
appropriate storage cabinet produced the type specimen:
Widgiemoolthalite type specimen
Seeing and photographing the actual type specimen for Widgiemoolthalite represented the ultimate thrill of my walkabout experience. My 5-year journey of discovery was now complete! The moral of this story: Be careful when you surf the Internet as you'll never know where it may lead to... |
||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||