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This group of Witherite specimens are from the Rosebery Mine, Rosebery, Tasmania, Australia.

This piece weighs 28g and measures 3cm x 3cm x 1.5cm.

Rosebery was founded about 1900 after the discovery in 1893 of Gold in Rosebery Creek and lead ore at nearby Mount Read. The town took its name from the mining company of the first prospector to find Gold - Archibald Philip Primrose the 5th Earl of Rosebery. The township is located approximately 300 kilometres north-west of Hobart and 125 kilometres south of Burnie. Lead smelters were in operation there until 1913, but the high Zinc content of the ore made commercial exploitation unprofitable.

The mine was reopened in 1936 with the introduction of new processing methods and the Rosebery mine is one of Tasmania’s largest and oldest continuously operating, underground mines producing Zinc, Copper and Lead concentrates, as well as Gold doré, (partially-refined alloy primarily composed of gold and silver).

Witherite occurs with some rarer Barium minerals in the Rosebery mine,including Barytocalcite, Alstonite and Harmotome. Sphalerite, Pyrite and Galena are also commonly associated with it there. It occurs in large fracture zones (probable faults), mostly in the Y lens (a part of the orebody), commonly with large, cavernous open spaces lined with sparkling crystals. The occurrence of these minerals is of world significance, and the specimens recovered are amongst the best in the world.

Witherite was named after William Withering (1741–1799), an English physician and naturalist, who first described the mineral in 1784, from England. A Barium Carbonate (BaCO3) mineral, Witherite is the barium analogue of Aragonite, (a common, naturally occurring crystal form of Calcium Carbonate, CaCO3), but Witherite is far less common. It has been found to be very widespread in many ore deposits worldwide, but is rarely present in large and rich quantities, as is seen in the Rosebery mine.

Witherite can be colourless, white, or pale shades of grey, yellow, orange and pink, and is colourless in transmitted light. It has a vitreous to resinous lustre, with a high specific gravity of 4.3, meaning that the weight of Witherite is 4.3 times the weight of an equivalent volume of water and has a low Mohs Hardness of 3– 3.5. While it is orthorhombic in crystal structure, Witherite specimens are usually massive (have no distinct crystal shape) or occur in pseudo-hexagonal, cyclically twinned crystals rather like Aragonite.

Harmotome:-

Harmotome is a rare, white-to-brown hydrated Barium Aluminium Silicate Zeolite mineral, known for its distinctive cross-shaped crystal twins, with a Mohs hardness of 4 to 5 and a vitreous lustre. It typically occurs in hydrothermal veins with Barium minerals like Baryte but also forms in volcanic cavities alongside other Zeolites.