In the first of four featured articles Bob Noble recounts part of the early prospecting history of the Kalgoorlie gold rush and the discovery of the fabulous Golden Mile deposit by Sam Pearce from the Adelaide Prospecting Syndicate. The Golden Mile is the world’s largest and richest known Archean gold lode system and contains the world’s largest endowment and diversity of telluride minerals. This is followed by a description, by Greg Jorgensen and colleagues, of a new locality for fine crystals of wulfenite (featured on the cover). These were recovered from the Penny West gold mine near Youanmi in the central Yilgarn Craton. The suite of secondary minerals from this mine also included the first occurrence of bushmakinite in Australia and Penny West is only the third locality in the world where it has been found. These specimens of wulfenite are possibly the finest found in the State after those from the Whim Creek mine in the Pilbara. The third featured article is a history of the Northampton mineral field that is situated near the coast approximately 450 km north of Perth. The discovery of galena there in October 1848 sparked WA’s first mining boom, and the mines of the region produced some excellent specimens of galena, pyromorphite and cerussite. Finally, Ben Grguric and John Toma write about the mineralogy of the Almanda mine, a short-lived but relatively rich 19th century silver mine in the Adelaide Hills.

AJM aims to publish one to two issues per year.  Contributions on all aspects of mineralogy are welcome. Please contact the Editor at peter.downes@museum.wa.gov.au.  To subscribe or order your copy, please email ajm.secretary.treasurer@gmail.com.

AJM Publications Inc. team