Zinc-manganese carbonates from Broken Hill, New South Wales

Abstract

AbstractSpecimens of honey-brown to pinkish-brown globular carbonates encrusting concretionary goethite–coronadite from the oxidized zone at Broken Hill, New South Wales, have compositions in the rhodochrosite–smithsonite series. This may be the first extensive natural occurrence of this solid-solution series. Growth of the carbonates occurred in zones which have near uniform composition. The ratio MnCO3/(MnCO3 + ZnCO3) for each zone bears a linear relationship to the measured d spacing for the 104 X-ray reflections. Because cerussite is the only other mineral associated with the Zn-Mn carbonates and because of an absence of detailed locality information, the paragenetic significance of these minerals cannot be determined. The solutions depositing them may have been derived from the near-surface equivalents of the Zinc Lode horizons.