Apophyllite with Inesite

Help improve this record

No owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Inesite is a hydrous calcium manganese silicate which at the Broken Hill mines in New south Wales, Australia, forms as golden-brown acicular crystals in fan-shaped sprays, usually lying flat against the matrix. Large crystal sprays such are relatively rare at Broken Hill and in this cabinet specimen these are associated with a roughly 8 x 5 cm area of colourless to milky-white Apophyllite crystals, a superb combination. Two primary fans of Inesite feature on the specimen, each measuring 4.5 cm across with one fan on each of the opposite sides. Other smaller sprays and clusters of Inesite crystals also occur around the periphery of the specimen. The Apophyllite forms highly lustrous glassy crystals of various habits up 1 cm across which range between translucent to rarely transparent. A magnificent Inesite and apophyllite specimen from New Broken Hill Consolidated mine, New South Wales.