CROCOITE

ABOUT THE SPECIMEN

Quite beautifully arranged specimen of crocoite from the famous and prolific finds in Tasmania. Front and center is a grouping of fiery red crystals, excellently formed and brilliantly lustrous. Above all else, they display a bipyramidal habit, with unusually sharp form and well-defined terminations for the mine. This morphology is more common for crocoite from other world localities, but much rarer for Dundas in comparison to the longer "needlelike" crystals, which usually show incomplete or missing terminations. For a small cabinet example, this one has it all: intense red color, sharp crystallization, and generous coverage!

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The Adelaide Mine sits at the junction of Cambrian serpentinite and Devonian-age lead veins in the Dundas mineral field, where chromium from weathering ultramafics migrated into oxidizing galena deposits to form lead chromate. The brilliant orange-red prismatic crystals - often reaching 8-10 cm with characteristic hollow "jackstraw" habits - grow in vugs within friable gossan and altered listwanite. What makes Adelaide crocoite globally significant is both the crystal quality and the sheer volume produced from specific pockets. Frank Mihajlowits, the "crocoite king," operated the mine from 1970-2004 and discovered a major watercourse in 1990 that yielded thousands of specimens over 14 years. The 2012 "Red River find" under current operator Adam Wright revealed another productive zone still being worked. Crocoite forms through recent supergene processes in rocks deposited during Devonian hydrothermal activity, making these specimens geologically young compared to their host formations. Tasmania designated crocoite its official mineral emblem in 2000, and Adelaide remains the world's primary source for collector-grade material. The mine's intermittent production means availability tracks closely with active mining sections.