Nelson Bay River mine, Temma, Balfour-Temma district, Circular Head municipality, Tasmania, Australia
A thin section (part-polarised light) showing brown silpnomelane and green chamosite.
© R Bottrill 2006
A thin section (cross-polarised light) showing irregular/skeletal magnetite porphyroblasts in a matrix of fibrous grunerite and minor siderite and quartz.
A thin section under polarised light, showing almandine garnet porphyroblasts to about 0.5mm overprinting earlier porphyroblasts of a prismatic amphibole(?), now altered to quartz-biotite aggregates, in a fine grained biotite (annite) matrix. Some minor green chlorite (chamosite) alteration of garnet is visible.
Gossan from the oxidised zone of the lode, with goethite, hematite and coronadite.
© R Bottrill
Temma, Balfour-Temma district, Circular Head municipality, Tasmania, Australia
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA, outcrop photo by Grace Cumming. Andalusite var chiastolite, altered to margarite (XRD). Possibly also exhibits cordierite.
Rhodochrosite, showing pink crystals to a on a brownish matrix probably grading into siderite, with minor magnetite.
Beautiful hemisphere of deep pink Rhodochrosite on matrix from the one off find at the Nelson Bay River Mine in Tasmania. This mine is now flooded.
Front of specimen with scattered rhodochrosite crystals embedded in matrix.
© A&M
Photograph of goethite-hematite orein the earliest stages of extraction from the new mine.
© R. Bottrill
Site of new open pit mine; the red-brown material is the iron ore.
Strickland mine, Temma, Balfour-Temma district, Circular Head municipality, Tasmania, Australia
After spending a long while bashing through the scrub, this seems to be the old main shaft, now flooded, and a small dump. It was apparently working in the 1960's, hard to believe now.
Looking southeast along the main pit, 2015, the brown material is the ironstone being mined.
In the main pit, showing the red ironstone, a weathered magnetite-grunerite body. 2015
