Kalgoorlie finally has a mineral to call its own! Dr Kirsten Rempel, from Curtin’s Department of Applied Geology, identified the microscopic, silvery coloured material in January 2015 when examining samples held in WASM’s museum at the Kalgoorlie campus. The sample was collected from the former Associated Gold Mines – one of the many underground workings that were later consolidated into the Kalgoorlie Super Pit.
The sample, although tiny, is the largest amount of the mineral found so far and provides a unique opportunity to understand the origin of high grade ores taken from an area that was now just empty space in the middle of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit. It sat in the museum for years, simply described as ‘gold ore showing tellurides’. The collector and date of collection is unknown.
After a year-long verification and classification process, the International Mineralogical Association formally declared the material a new mineral last month. Kalgoorlieite is a telluride mineral that was chemically related to the gold and silver telluride ores in the Kalgoorlie Super Pit.
“I’ve decided to name it kalgoorlieite, after the type locality – it’s about time Kalgoorlie had its own mineral!” Rempel said.
The International Mineralogical Association receives more than 100 mineral proposals per year, with the majority of these being approved, Kalgoorlieite will be added to the list of 5107 known minerals.
