Due to poor technical performance and under-whelming technical support at bluehost.com, I have moved all of my websites to a new hosting provider. The same domain, crocoite.com applies,…
The Australian Journal of Mineralogy Index for volumes 1-18 is now available.The index is continually updated, and new versions will be released as more volumes are added.
John Cornish outside the Adelaide Mine in 2012. The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, is world-famous for it’s crocoite specimens. But other species also occur. Here’s a few in…
A second one created tonight. This time, one that hasn’t been published anywhere before. The idea just popped into my head!
I first created geology themed cartoons back in the late 1990s in a series called The Fault Line, published in the Mineralogical Society of Tasmania newsletters. Time to…
A nice little spiky calcite specimen from the Portland Harbour Trust Quarry, Cape Sir William Grant, Portland, Glenelg Shire, Victoria. There are two generations of calcite as can…
Shifting into my monochrome phase. A photo of magnetite crystals from the Biggenden Mine, Queensland. Photo width is 5mm. A stack of 158 images processed through Zerene Stacker.
Issue 5 of the Monthly Mineral Chronicles is now available on Sorrell Publications.
Issue 4 of the Monthly Mineral Chronicles is now available on Sorrell Publications.
Zeolites of Tasmania, Steve Sorrell, 2003 I need to update this! 15 years ago, my photography skills were not that great, nor was the technology, and there have…
Flinders is a well-known collecting locality in southern Victoria, Australia, most notable for its zeolite minerals, particularly gmelinite.This publication explores the minerals that have been found here. You…
Issue 2 and Issue 3 of the Monthly Mineral Chronicles are now available on Sorrell Publications.
Issue 1 of the Monthly Mineral Chronicles is now available on Sorrell Publications.
Each year, Dehne and Maureen McLaughlin head up to the Northern Territory from Tasmania, to mine for azurite sun specimens. And each year, Dehne writes about the progress…
Main Lead is an area north of Beaufort, Victoria. It was the subject of an early gold rush (Fiery Creek) in the mid 1850s. I was fortunate to…
This is the download page for issues of the Australia and New Zealand Micromineral News, a publication for those interested in micromounting or microminerals, and particularly in minerals…
Henderson’s Quarry is a major excavation in volcanic rock on the eastern side of Mount Ngongotaha, near Rotorua on the North Island of New Zealand. Featured image: Henderson’s Quarry,…
A granite quarry in Victoria’s northwest. Featured image: Schorl tourmaline, Pyramid Hill From Mindat – Two quarries, one abandoned, the other operated by E.B. Mawson and Sons, have…
Mooralla has long been a famous collecting area, mainly in lapidary circles, and is renowned for its spectacular specimens of smoky quartz. Lesser known is the occurrence of…
Lake Cooper Quarry is situated on the western side of the Corop-Heathcote Road, near to the township of Corop in central Victoria. It is a working quarry producing…
Flinders is a Dana locality southeast of Melbourne, Victoria, best known for producing large crystals of gmelinite. The basalts are part of the Older Volcanics with a flow…
The Duke of Cornwall Mine is just outside Fryerstown on the road to Chewton. There are dumps on one side of the road and the ruins of a…
Vivianite nodules up to 20cm across have been found on the beach west of Anglesea on Victoria’s south coast. These are usually water-rounded dark blue nodules that sometimes…
Coimadai (pronounced come-ida) Antimony mine is on Pyrete Creek, a tributary of Goodman’s Creek, about 15 km NNE of Bacchus Marsh. It consists of two lodes, Draper’s and…
The Mount Alexander diggings were located in the central goldfields region of Victoria, in and around the present day city of Castlemaine. The site of one of the…
Camperdown, in Victoria’s Western Districts, is best known for it’s volcanoes and farming. But not for gold. However, the 1900 article below indicates that gold was found in…
According to Wikipedia, gold was reported at Daisy Hill in 1849, two years before the official finding of gold (at Clunes and Warrandyte). There is no mention of Daisy…
Alfredton is a suburb on the western side of Ballarat. In June 2013, a new housing subdivision was under development on the western side of Learmonth Street. Excavation…
This is where you can find miscellaneous external articles on Victorian localities… Featured image: Ryan Eagle Pegmatite dykes of the Mount Wills district, northeastern Victoria, Australia, Ryan Eagle
The Minerals of the Kara Mine, Tasmania book (Steve Sorrell and Ralph Bottrill) can be purchased in either paperback or hardback versions from Lulu. Featured image: Andradite, Kara Mine,…
Introduction Barite (barium sulphate) is a fairly common heavy mineral that often occurs in Pb-Zn ore deposits as a gangue mineral, in sedimentary deposits, and rarely in basalts….
Featured image: Calcite, Avebury Mine The full text and photos of the minerals from Avebury can be found in Issue 2 of the Australian and New Zealand Mineral Collector…
The Adelaide Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, is famous for its world’s best crocoite. Adam Wright and his partners have been operating it for mineral specimen removal for a number…
Here are a few external articles on South Australian deposits… Featured image: Old wagon on the edge of the track between Plumbago and Billeroo. Trevor Dart photo. The Billeroo…
By Eric L Stevens and Steve Sorrell (photos by Steve Sorrell unless otherwise noted) Updated and revised from an article originally published in the Australian and New Zealand…
By Eric von Werstak Feature image: F-6 Freeway at Mount Brown looking north where the vughs appeared. Introduction Mount Brown is situated near Dapto in the Illawarra District of the…
The Elura mine (now known as the Endeavour Mine) near Cobar, New South Wales, was well-known in particular for its native silver and mimetite specimens. This 278 page thesis…
Broken Hill based Trevor Dart has written a few articles on localities in his region. These include the following ones on Mindat: Rutile in the Broken Hill District,…
The late Margaret and Keith Brown of Echuca had many trips through New South Wales and Queensland, collecting minerals themselves, or swapping/purchasing with other mineral collectors. This post…