Lepidolite Hill pegmatite, Nepean, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Lepidolite Hill pegmatite	Pegmatite
Nepean	Urban area (Historical)
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Located about one kilometre north of the Londonderry lithium mine.

Known for large masses of bright purple fine grained lepidolite. It is also the site of the first documented occurrence of pollucite in Western Australia.

The site was first noted by LeMesurier in 1944, and named as Lepidolite Hill shortly after by K.R. Miles. Western Mining Corporation explored the site in 1964, and mining started under tribute to this company in 1971 for petalite, beryl and lepidolite, until mining ceased in 1973.

The site contains a large abandoned pit, 150 metres long, 60 metres wide, and 15 metres deep. Some rehabilitation of the mullock piles has taken place.

The original outcrop contained four pods of massive scaly purple lepidolite in contact with white quartz. Later work revealed a north-eastern pegmatite body, 213 metres long by 24 to 90 metres wide, dipping north-west. There is also a south-western pegmatite body, forming a south pointing, L shaped outcrop, dipping north-east and north-west.

The pegmatites contain a albite-quartz-spessartine border zone, quartz-albite-microcline-muscovite wall zone, quartz-muscovite and petalite-quartz-microcline-lepidolite intermediate zones, fine grained lepidolite-quartz core margin, and a quartz core.

Petalite may be altered to albite-quartz and quartz-cookeite, similar to that described under the Londonderry Mindat locality nearby. Un-altered petalite is grey to pearly white masses, with single crystal fragments averaging 20 x 8 cm, with rare masses up to 60 x 60 x 90 cm. Pollucite is recorded as one specimen in the Western Australian Museum, as white glassy pollucite with grey micaceous veinlets. The reference states it is the only record of the species in Australia (2007), although Mindat lists the species for the Greenbushes Mine, also in Western Australia (2013).

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References