Crocoite
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Crocoite from the Red Lead Mine, Dundas, Tasmania, Australia, measuring 64 × 52 × 35 mm and weighing 102 grams. A good piece of Tasmania's best-known and most distinctive mineral.
Crocoite is lead chromate, PbCrO4, monoclinic, and it forms as slender prismatic crystals in a vivid orange-red that collectors prize above almost any other Australian species. It develops in the oxidised zone of lead deposits where chromium, released by weathering of chromium-bearing rock nearby, combines with lead from the primary ore. The Red Lead Mine at Dundas, worked and re-worked by specimen miners for decades, is the other great historic source of Dundas Crocoite alongside the neighbouring Adelaide Mine, and together the two have supplied most of the fine Crocoite in collections around the world.
Crocoite is Tasmania's mineral emblem, and a well-coloured piece from Dundas remains one of the most sought-after specimens any Australian dealer can offer. This piece is from the David Vince Collection.