Economic Mineral Collection
NSW Department of Primary Industries - Mineral Resources is custodian of the state's Economic Mineral Collection, containing about 24 000 specimens.
As a scientific resource for the study of the state's minerals and ores, the Economic Mineral Collection is without peer. It is widely acknowledged to be one of the finest collections of its type in the world, and includes examples from virtually every mineral deposit in New South Wales. Many of the original specimens provide the sole evidence of the output and geological environment of mines now abandoned or worked out. Areas which are particularly strongly represented include Broken Hill (part of the Hugh Dixon Bequest collection), Cobar, and the New England district (Sachs molybdenite specimens). Gold samples dating from the rushes of the mid 1850s form another significant area of specialisation. The most important of these is the largest surviving Australian nugget of the 19th century - the Maitland Bar (or Jubilee) Nugget (10.7 kg), found in 1887 near Mudgee.
Associated reference collections include over 1800 polished sections of ores (see Polished Section Collection below), assay cards documenting thousands of samples from throughout New South Wales submitted for analysis between 1905 and 1970, historical mining artefacts (including mining lamps, assay balances and bullion scales, and early geophysical and geological equipment), and a representative meteorite collection including the Warialda and Barraba meteorites.
A diverse collection of minerals from elsewhere in Australia and international sources provides a valuable comparative reference resource. Accumulation of this material by exchange or purchase took place prior to the expansion of modern collector interest, so that many of the specimens, for example Stibnite crystals from Ichikonowa, Japan, are truly of worldclass museum quality.
Access to the Reference Collections
Cuprite crystals
Specimens from the Economic Minerals Collection are available for loan, at departmental discretion, to recognised educational institutions, public museums, industry associations and mining companies, for the purposes of research or display. Details of loan criteria may be obtained from Dr Ian Percival, Principal Research Scientist, Londonderry Centre, phone
Under special circumstances (and subject to stringent security provisions), specimens may also be hired for promotional purposes.
Polished Section Collection
Reflected light microscopy is the standard method for the characterisation of ore minerals and determination of mineral paragenesis (the order in which individual minerals were deposited) for investigations into individual mineral deposits.
Ore texture and mineral paragenesis.
As a result of these investigations the Geological Survey has a collection of over 1800 standard polished sections, together with polished blocks and polished thin sections. Many of these samples were collected while the individual mines were being worked, and complement those held in the Economic Mineral Collection. The samples provide an invaluable resource for ongoing studies into the metallogeny of the state's mineral provinces. Work is progressing in re-cataloguing the collection and georeferencing all samples.
For further information contact Peter Downes, Senior Geologist (Metallic Minerals), phone
History of the Mineral and Fossil Collections
The state's Economic Mineral Collection and the Palaeontological Reference Collections date from 1883, after all the natural history collections of New South Wales were destroyed in the Garden Palace fire the preceding year. The best specimens from both collections were previously displayed for many years at the Geological and Mining Museum in George Street North (under the southern approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge). When that institution became the Earth Exchange in the late 1980s, the most spectacular minerals formed the centrepiece of the Hall of Treasures, occupying the 4th floor of the building. Both collections were moved from the Earth Exchange upon its closure in late 1995, firstly to the Mineral Resources Laboratories at Lidcombe, and more recently to Londonderry in western Sydney. The separate Albert Chapman Collection of Minerals, formerly exhibited at the Earth Exchange, was transferred to the Australian Museum where it is now again on public display.