PHOSPHATE MINERALS IN OXIDISED SULPHIDE DEPOSITS IN VICTORIA

Pyromorphite from Limestone Creek, northeastern Victoria

There are minor occurrences of secondary minerals in oxidised sulphide deposits and sulphide-bearing quartz veins in Victoria. Many of the deposits were associated with gold mines operating during the late 1800s. Recently an unusal suite of bismuth-bearing minerals has been described from an oxidised portion of a gold skarn at Morass Creek, near Benambra in Eastern Victoria, including the rare bismuth phosphate mineral, mrazekite associated with bismuth vanadates namibite, pucherite and schumacherite. Species recorded from oxidised sulphide zones in Victoria include fluorapatite, mrazekite, plumbogummite and pyromorphite.

Mrazekite