Rhodonite with Galena & Fluorite
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Rhodonite with Galena and Fluorite from Broken Hill, N.S.W., Australia, measuring 54 × 54 × 43 mm and weighing 282 grams. A dense, blocky piece showing three of the deposit's signature minerals together.
Rhodonite is manganese silicate, MnSiO3, and it is probably the best known of Broken Hill's suite of manganese minerals, its pink colouring coming from the same metamorphism of manganese-rich sediment that produced the Spessartine and Bustamite elsewhere in this sale. Having it alongside Galena, lead sulfide and the deposit's principal ore mineral, and Fluorite, which commonly occurs as a gangue mineral through the lode, gives a single specimen that spans both the host rock's story and the ore itself.
Pink Rhodonite against the grey metallic lustre of Galena is one of the most photogenic combinations to come out of Broken Hill, and it is part of why the deposit has such a strong following among collectors who are drawn to colour and contrast as much as to rarity. This piece is from the David Vince Collection.