Silver Sulphosalts from the Meerschaum Mine, Mt. Wills, Victoria, Australia

W. D. Birch
Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, National Museum of Victoria, 285-321 Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000

Abstract: A rich vein of silver and silver-lead sulphosalt minerals was discovered in 1906 in the Meerschaum Mine, on the Sunnyside goldfield at Mt. Wills, in northeastern Victoria. Andorite, miargyrite, tetrahedrite (freibergite), owyheeite, and argentian gold are the main silver-bearing minerals present, and sphalerite, pyrite, arsenopyrite, and covelline also occur in the vein.

The vein was probably emplaced under epithermal conditions from ore fluids accompanying the intrusion of the Mt. Wills granite. The main silver-bearing minerals were probably deposited at temperatures ranging from about 350 ° to below 300 °C.

Mineralogical Magazine; March 1981 v. 44; no. 333; p. 73-78; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1981.44.333.12
© 1981, The Mineralogical Society
Mineralogical Society (www.minersoc.org)