Crystal King Mine (Black Charlie's Mine), Tallangallook, Mansfield Shire, Victoria, Australia
Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): | 36° 55' 57'' South , 145° 52' 30'' East |
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Latitude & Longitude (decimal): | -36.93254,145.87501 |
The Crystal King Mine (originally known as Black Charlie's Mine) is on the northern slope of the Strathbogie Ranges at the head of Black Charlie's Creek. It is approximately 2,900 feet above sea level and 14 kilometers north from the township of Bonnie Doon. Black Charlie's Mine was originally started due to the presence of gold which apparently occurred in narrow quartz veins occupying vertical joints in the granite. In 1944 the mine was reopened as part of the workings in the search for crystal suitable for piezo-electric applications.
The quartz crystals occur in bodies of quartz which are associated with vertical pipes of aplite in the biotite granite. The quartz bodies which contain the crystals in vughs of large dimensions, occur within 2 pipes which are cylindrical in shape.
The southern pipe- No.1, has been stoped to a depth of 90 feet, that is 20 feet below water level. The pipe had a diameter of about 8 feet and was approximately circular in plan. The pipe is cut by a fault 43 feet below the surface and is displaced 8 feet to the south-west. One vugh above the fault was discovered and is reported that it yielded about 2 tons of crystals including one stated to have weighed about 160 kg.
Currently the working consists of five shafts and three trenches. Crystals have also been recovered from Black Charlie's Creek.
Typically, the quartz crystals occurred embedded in white to cream and pale brown clay which filled the vughs. The walls of the cavities were lined with massive, cloudy grey quartz.
The Crystal King Mine was famous for its optical quality quartz and in 1971 the largest hand-faceted stone in the world at the time was sourced from the mines. The "Crystal King" was a flawless, colourless and clear quartz measuring 19 x 11 x 6 cm and has 196 facets and weighed 8510 carats. The stone took 200 hours to cut and polish.
Mineral List
2 valid minerals.
Regional Geology
This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.
Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org
Early Devonian - Katian 393.3 - 453 Ma | Jordan River Group Age: Paleozoic (393.3 - 453 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Jordan River Group Description: Undifferentiated marine turbiditic sandstone, mudstone. Comments: sedimentary siliciclastic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Sedimentary siliciclastic Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5] |
Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
Crystal King Mine, Tallangallook, Mansfield Shire, Victoria, Australia