Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
Roughton Gill	Group of Mines (Abandoned)
Caldbeck	Civil Parish
Allerdale	District
Cumbria	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

Roughton Gill, Caldbeck Fells Mining Region, Cumbria, England, UK

Localities:

Description: post collection growths as minute spiky clusters on silver specimens, not found in situ. Green et al. (2008): "The presence of acanthite on several of the specimens we have examined in this study is almost certainly due to the oxidation of tiny masses of supergene silver, although we have only been able to positively identify silver by EDS on one tiny specimen."

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Localities:

Locality: Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Description: Bridges et al. (2008): "Bridges et al. (2005) suggest that the earthy form of brochantite may often result from the decomposition of this mineral. This could explain the fact that earthy brochantite is relatively common at the site."

Localities:

Localities:

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Localities:

Description: Bannister, Hey, and Claringbull (1950): "We now find from an X-ray study of all atacamites and paratacamites labelled as such in the British Museum collections, that only one occurrence of the orthorhombic mineral itself is known in the British Isles, namely at Roughtongill." (B.M. 31622a, bought of Mr. D. Lowry, 1860.) Kingsbury and Hartley (1956): "Until a year or two ago, the only British specimen of atacamite, the orthorhombic basic copper chloride, was one in the British Museum collection, purchased in 1860 and labelled from Roughtongill in Cumberland." Cooper & Stanley (1990): "Kingsbury & Hartley (1956) doubted this occurrence (i.e. Bannister et al.) since the specimen was so similar to material collected by them from Potts Gill and they could find no trace of atacamite at Roughton Gill."

Localities:

Habit: aggregates of radiating lath-like crystals; randomly disposed blades

Colour: pale blue to turquoise (laths); blue to blue-green (blades)

Localities:

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "From the 30fm and 90fm level dumps (Hartley, 1984). A specimen in the King Collection (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), obtained from an old collection by W.F. Davidson, and reputed to come from Thief Gills [i.e. probably the ancient outcrop workings in higher Roughton Gill] in 1912 is, if authentic, easily the best azurite from the area. It shows a striated crystal 15mm in diameter with fibrous malachite on 'copper pitch'."

Locality: Higher Roughton Gill (Balliway Rigg), Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: pseudocubic

Colour: dark green, yellow-brown to pale green

Localities: Reported from at least 8 localities in this region.

Habit: massive; tabular to blocky; rhombohedra

Colour: colourless to white

Localities:

Locality: Silver Gill, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Localities:

Habit: spherical aggregates of rhombic crystals; crusts; rhombic to pseudocubic

Colour: yellow, yellowish-brown, greenish-brown, brown

Description: Green et al. (2008): "Beudantite was identified by XRD and WDS as yellow to brown euhedral rhombic crystals up to about 0.2 mm on edge, which are sometimes aggregated into spherical masses. It also forms crusts on iron-stained quartz. Beudantite occurs with baryte and lepidocrocite in cellular quartz veinstone found in screes at the northeast end of the exposure of the vein in higher Roughton Gill. Screes on the east side of the valley produced well-formed yellow to dark brown rhombic to pseudo-cubic crystals in an iron-stained matrix. The exact source of these latter specimens, which are sometimes associated with well-crystallised carminite, is unknown. Beudantite was noted with carminite at Balliway Rigg in an unpublished manuscript prepared by Arthur Kingsbury in 1951. It was later described with a variety of other minerals including, jarosite, plumbojarosite, and beaverite by Kingsbury and Hartley (1960). The claimed Roughton Gill alunite jarosite group specimens in the Kingsbury collection are not particularly spectacular but they do not give the impression of a coherent group, which were all collected from the same locality. Many of the other specimens on which the 1960 'carminite and beudantite' paper is based, including for example beudantite with olivenite from Dry Gill Mine, and beudantite from Ingray Gill, are almost certainly fraudulent. Kingsbury's beudantite specimens cannot be considered trustworthy."

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Habit: powdery encrustations

Colour: pale yellow

Description: From the flank of Balliway Rigg in higher Roughton Gill (Hartley, 1984). Kingsbury claimed the occurrence as 'new to GB'. Also from the 90fm level dumps as a yellow powder in cavities in a quartz-galena matrix with cerussite, caledonite, leadhillite and malachite.

Localities:

Colour: metallic purple

Localities:

Description: Green et al. (2008): "Bournonite was noted intergrown with galena from workings on the South Vein in higher Roughton Gill in an unpublished manuscript by Arthur Kingsbury (Cooper and Stanley, 1990). We have been unable to find any bournonite labelled from higher Roughton Gill in the Kingsbury Collection, but the mineral has been found as microscopic inclusions in galena on the strike extension of South Vein at Driggith Mine (Stanley and Vaughan, 1981). Although the record is quite likely to be correct, it is perhaps best considered unproven."

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "The 'brewsterite' recorded by Hall (1868) as an associate of tenorite and chalcopyrite is unlikely to be the zeolitic brewsterite (of Brooke) as assumed by Young (1987). It is more likely to be the 'brewsterite' listed by Branston (1910) and Postlethwaite (1913) as 'protoxide of copper'. Although the latter is a synonym of cuprite, the name brewsterite in this context does not appear in any standard mineralogy or synonymy known to the authors and the precise definition of the term appears to be lost."

Localities: Reported from at least 8 localities in this region.

Habit: drusy crusts (on goethite); earthy masses and encrustations associated with partially oxidised sulphides (on vein quartz).

Localities: Reported from at least 9 localities in this region.

Colour: translucent white

Localities: Reported from at least 7 localities in this region.

Habit: velvety encrustations; radiating sprays of acicular crystals; elongated prisms; laths; feathery

Colour: pale blue, deep blue, sky blue

Localities:

Habit: prismatic

Colour: deep carmine red

Description: Green et al. (2008): "Carminite was identified by XRD (to differentiate it from mawbyite) and EDS in material found in a scree on the east side of the valley at the northeastern end of the study area. Characteristic deep red pointed prismatic crystals up to about 0.1 mm in length accompany segnitite in small cavities in thin veins in quartz-rich wallrock. Carminite is also almost certainly present as minutely drusy deep red resinous encrustations in specimens found loose in screes on the west side of the valley, but they are too small for analysis by XRD. Carminite was claimed from the outcrop of the South Vein in higher Roughton Gill by Kingsbury and Hartley (1960). The Kingsbury specimens are different from any that we have collected, but they closely resemble classic material from Tintic, Utah, USA. They comprise mimetite, beudantite, and carminite, with grey copper sulphides, chalcopyrite, and arsenopyrite. The sulphide assemblage is unlike anything we have found along the exposure of the South Vein in higher Roughton Gill. The Kingsbury carminite specimens are likely to be fraudulent."

Localities: Reported from at least 11 localities in this region.

Localities:

Habit: dull earthy botryoidal crust

Colour: black

Localities:

Localities: Reported from at least 10 localities in this region.

Description: Green et al. (2008): "Chalcopyrite is the commonest primary copper mineral in the vein exposure. It occurs as idiomorphic masses in quartz veinstone, these are sometimes bright and unoxidised, but more commonly partly replaced by goethite. Blue and green oxidation rims commonly surround chalcopyrite."

Localities:

Habit: monoclinic blades

Colour: pale blue

Localities: Reported from at least 8 localities in this region.

Habit: botryoidal crusts

Colour: blue to green (coloured by included malachite)

Description: Confirmed by EDS and XRD by Green et al. (2008).

Localities:

Colour: brick red

Localities:

Habit: acicular

Colour: blue

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Localities:

Habit: rhombohedra, sometimes aggregated into spherical masses; drusy crusts

Colour: yellow to brown

Localities:

Habit: botryoidal crusts made up of acicular crystals a few µm across.

Colour: black

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Habit: rims and encrustations (around galena and other sulphides); hexagonal plates (in small cavities in quartz veinstone)

Colour: dark purple; metallic blue to purple

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "'Chromate of Lead, or Crocoisite' from Roughton Gill was recorded by Branston (1910: 18) on the basis of a specimen in Carlisle Museum. This specimen has been examined by several mineralogists and all agree that it is typical of crocoite from Beresov, Siberia, and is incorrectly provenanced."

Localities:

Localities: Reported from at least 7 localities in this region.

Locality: Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: powder

Colour: blue-black

Description: Collected in an unsuccessful search for tenorite (Davidson & Thomson, 1951).

Locality: Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Habit: vein filling in milky quartz, where occasional cavities contained typical saddle shaped crystals.

Locality: Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: minute lath-like crystals in a galena-chalcopyrite matrix associated with chenite and hydrocerussite; as a pale purple coating on galena in a specimen collected by P. Briscoe from waste near the old stamps at the Red Gill-Swinburn Gill confluence (det. BM(NH): XRD). Probably dump-formed (Brisco, 1986).

Colour: pale purple

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: encrustations

Colour: pink

Description: From the 90fm level dumps. Probably formed on the dumps. Bridges et al. (2011): "Cooper and Stanley (1990) and Young (1987) report erythrite as pale pink coatings on quartz and calcite. Small amounts have been found in the course of this study as minute balls up to 0.5 mm in diameter, with a radiating structure, and encrusting fractured quartz surfaces."

Locality: Higher Roughton Gill (Balliway Rigg), Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Locality: Silver Gill, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Localities: Reported from at least 11 localities in this region.

Habit: massive; cubo-octahedra

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "Mostly massive; small cube-octahedra altered almost entirely to cerussite, linarite etc. occur in dump specimens on the east bank opposite the Red Gill mine."

Localities:

Localities: Reported from at least 9 localities in this region.

Habit: powdery; botryoidal and/or stalactitic masses

Colour: limonitic to dark brown

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Localities:

Habit: gossanous material containing numerous small cavities lined with earthy red powder

Colour: dark red to brown

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Description: Embrey (1978): "A specimen of bluish-grey plumbogummite from Roughton Gill, Cumberland, appeared to be a mixcrystal of hinsdalite, plumbogummite, and hidalgoite. E. B. Förtsch (1967), Mineral. Mag. 36, 530." Cooper & Stanley (1990): "Supposedly a component of 'plumbogummite' (Förtsch 1967). However, the analysis of plumbogummite by Hartley (1900) - used by Förtsch - shows no sulphate and only trace amounts of arsenic."

Localities:

Localities: Reported from at least 7 localities in this region.

Habit: as thin bright pearly plates, which loosely encrust cavities in vein quartz; as aggregates of discoidal crystals up to 3 mm across; as well-formed rhombs up to 3 mm across; and as platy hexagonal crystals with a perfect one-directional cleavage up to about 5 mm on edge.

Colour: very pale blue (Cooper & Stanley, 1990)

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "From 'Thief Gills (northern)' [probably the outcrop workings in higher Roughton Gill] (Hartley Collection. Leeds Univ., det. University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST): IR."

Localities:

Habit: encrustations a few mm across associated with hemimorphite.

Colour: white

Localities:

Habit: drusy crusts

Colour: pale slightly pearly brown

Description: Kingsbury reference. Kingsbury and Hartley (1958): "occurs as a yellow to brown powdery aggregates, associated with beaverite, beudantite, and chrysocolla in chalcedonic quartz, in the outcrop of the south vein along the flank of Balliway Rigg (B.M. 1956, 77; 1958, 47)." Green et al. (2008): "Jarosite was identified by EDS as drusy crusts of pale slightly pearly brown crystals a few tens of micrometres across in cavernous iron-stained quartz matrix in loose screes on the east side of the valley. Jarosite was claimed from several locations in the Caldbeck Fells by Kingsbury and Hartley (1958). These include higher Roughton Gill where jarosite is described with beudantite, beaverite and 'chrysocolla' in chalcedonic quartz. No material similar to the rather nondescript Kingsbury specimens has been discovered in our investigations and bearing in mind Arthur Kingsbury's propensity for mis-labelling specimens it must be regarded with some skepticism."

Locality: Higher Roughton Gill (Balliway Rigg), Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: rhombic crystals up to 0.1mm on edge

Colour: yellow

Localities:

Localities:

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Habit: usually as (crusts of) thin tabular or equant hexagons, but also as elongated prisms up to 35mm across but generally much smaller; anything in excess of 15mm is very rare.

Colour: colourless

Localities:

Habit: drusy crusts of sub-millimetre size tabular crystals; reniform and botryoidal crusts

Colour: dark reddish-brown to black

Description: sometimes as epimorphs after supergene baryte.

Localities:

Localities: Reported from at least 11 localities in this region.

Locality: Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: complex crystalline mass, 4mm across, in a cavity in quartz veinstone; prismatic with triangular cross-section

Colour: grey

Localities: Reported from at least 13 localities in this region.

Habit: sprays or spherical aggregates of acicular crystals up to 5mm long

Colour: emerald green

Description: Commonly pseudomorphed by 'chrysocolla'. Miers (1897) reported it as pseudomorphing linarite.

Localities:

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Habit: drusy crusts; minute acicular crystals.

Localities: Reported from at least 8 localities in this region.

Localities:

Habit: grades into globular or botryoidal aggregates

Locality: Brae Fell Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Locality: Mexico Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Locality: Higher Roughton Gill (Balliway Rigg), Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Description: Green et al. (2008): "full confirmation (of redgillite vs. its dimorph montetrisaite) requires XRD for which there is insufficient material at present."

Localities:

Habit: pyramidal; blocky.

Colour: olive green; yellow to yellow-brown; brown.

Localities:

Localities:

Localities:

Localities:

Description: Kingsbury reference.

Localities:

Description: Green et al. (2008): "The presence of acanthite on several of the specimens we have examined in this study is almost certainly due to the oxidation of tiny masses of supergene silver, although we have only been able to positively identify silver by EDS on one tiny specimen."

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Habit: rounded crystals.

Colour: pale yellow to colourless.

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "Kendall (1884) listed 'olivienite' among the 'metallic minerals' from Roughton Gill on the authority of Postlethwaite or Bryce Wright. However, neither of these authors cite any locality in the Caldbeck Fells for this species in their publications (Postlethwaite, 1877; 1899; Wright in Jenkinson, 1875 and subsequent editions)."

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK - erroneously reported

Description: Bridges et al. (2011): "Hartley (1984) noted the presence of parahopeite on a specimen Kingsbury claimed to have collected from the 60-fathom dumps. The specimen could not be found in the NHM and no other collector has found the mineral in the Caldbeck Fells. It has to be considered fraudulent."

Locality: Higher Roughton Gill (Balliway Rigg), Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: botryoidal crusts

Colour: pale to dark green

Localities: Reported from at least 7 localities in this region.

Habit: drusy encrustations and crystals.

Colour: pale lavender blue to dark blue; yellow-brown.

Description: The first report of plumbogummite from the South Vein in higher Roughton Gill is due to Arthur Kingsbury, who recorded specimens "along the back of the south vein, on the flank of Balliway Rigg, from just above the waterfall to the junction of higher Roughtongill with the northern Thief Gill" in an unpublished manuscript completed in 1951. A number of superb specimens, with very precise labels are preserved in the Kingsbury collection at the NHM.

Localities:

Habit: pseudocubic

Colour: dark brown

Description: Single grain sufficiently sulphate-rich Green et al. (2008): "Plumbojarosite was described from an outcrop of the South Vein in Higher Roughton Gill with galena, cerussite, 'chrysocolla', carminite, beudantite, jarosite and beaverite by Kingsbury and Hartley (1960). The specimens are dissimilar to those that we have collected and must be regarded with suspicion."

Locality: Silver Gill, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: blocky

Colour: turquoise blue

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "Rarely, as blocky turquoise blue crystals (< 0.2mm) on altered sulphides in an old ore pile on the west bank of the gill [NY29953415] (det. BM(NH): XRD on a specimen submitted by B. Young, 1988). Linarite, langite, and wroewolfeite also occur in this assemblage and all are probably the result of dump oxidation."

Localities: Reported from at least 9 localities in this region.

Localities: Reported from at least 7 localities in this region.

Habit: massive

Colour: silvery

Localities:

Description: Green et al. (2008): "Pyrolusite or manganite was noted in one of the Thief gills by Davidson and Thomson (1951). Our analyses have only confirmed manganite, but very few specimens were available for study. Further field and analytical work is required to establish the diversity of manganese oxide minerals in the area."

Localities: Reported from at least 13 localities in this region.

Habit: botryoidal aggregates; prismatic

Colour: emerald green; oil green

Localities: Reported from at least 14 localities in this region.

Localities:

Locality: Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Locality: Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Colour: white

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): This exceedingly rare mineral, previously reported only from Tsumeb, Namibia, was found on one small specimen collected from the No. 2 (Old Dutch) level dumps in 1987 by M. Rothwell. It forms thin, white, radiating-fibrous crusts with a minutely botryoidal surface on small susannite crystals in massive cerussite, associated with a scattering of later caledonite. Queitite was identified by XRD (BM(NH) and IR (UMIST). The habit is completely different from type material (Braithwaite et al., 1989)."

Localities:

Localities:

Type Locality: Silver Gill, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: crystalline crusts

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): an 'unknown copper sulphate' on oxidized sulphides from the 'Golden Hugh' (D.R. Middleton Collection, det. BM(NH): XRD, 1987) and in an old ore pile on the west bank of the gill [NY29953415] (D.I. Green, pers. comm.)

Localities:

Localities:

Habit: crusts; spherulitic aggregates typically 0.5mm across

Colour: blue-green

Description: Green et al. (2008): "Surprisingly, rosasite was not described from Britain until 1957, when Kingsbury and Hartley noted it from seven localities including the exposure of the South Vein in higher Roughton Gill. This is not listed as a rosasite locality by Hartley (1984), but the Roughton Gill finds have been duplicated by many other collectors (see Cooper and Stanley, 1990) and there is no reason to doubt their authenticity."

Localities:

Localities:

Habit: crusts

Colour: brown to grey

Localities:

Habit: minute (<0.3mm) thin prismatic crystals in a quartz and highly oxidised galena matrix and in association with mattheddleite and leadhillite and in one case is overgrown by caledonite.

Locality: Higher Roughton Gill (Balliway Rigg), Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: rhombohedra; drusy aggregates and crusts.

Colour: pale yellow to yellow-brown.

Localities:

Localities:

Description: Bridges et al. (2011): "This mineral is surprisingly rare considering how common other supergene carbonates are on the site and the abundance of hemimorphite. It has been found as typical crusts of rounded buff coloured crystals, individual crystals being less than 1 mm diameter. It is usually associated with hemimorphite and sphalerite."

Localities: Reported from at least 8 localities in this region.

Colour: red to red-brown (crystals); dark brown (more compact masses)

Localities:

Habit: rhombohedra and trigonal prisms, some highly elongated.

Colour: colourless to pale blue.

Locality: Higher Roughton Gill (Balliway Rigg), Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Description: Green et al. (2008): "Tetrahedrite-tennantite with an intermediate composition is listed from higher Roughton Gill by Hartley (1984). We have been unable to trace the specimen in the Kingsbury Collection at the NHM. Tetrahedrite has been confirmed along the easterly strike extension of the Roughton Gill South Vein at Driggith Mine (Stanley and Vaughan, 1981), but tennantite remains unconfirmed. There is no reference to tetrahedrite or tennantite from higher Roughton Gill in any of Kingsbury's X-ray catalogues and it may be that specimens were found independently by Jack Hartley. A more extensive investigation of the primary mineralisation is required to resolve this problem."

Localities:

Habit: massive dull patches

Colour: black

Localities:

Description: Green et al. (2008): "Tetrahedrite-tennantite with an intermediate composition is listed from higher Roughton Gill by Hartley (1984). We have been unable to trace the specimen in the Kingsbury Collection at the NHM. Tetrahedrite has been confirmed along the easterly strike extension of the Roughton Gill South Vein at Driggith Mine (Stanley and Vaughan, 1981), but tennantite remains unconfirmed. There is no reference to tetrahedrite or tennantite from higher Roughton Gill in any of Kingsbury's X-ray catalogues and it may be that specimens were found independently by Jack Hartley. A more extensive investigation of the primary mineralisation is required to resolve this problem."

Localities:

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: drusy aggregates; scaly crystals

Colour: apple green

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "An arsenatian tsumebite was recorded by Embrey (1977) from 'Carrock Fell', but the collector of the material subsequently reported the locality more precisely at Roughton Gill at [NY302343]; i.e. between the 60 and 90fm level (Moffit, 1979). The authors have found tsumebite to be an occasional associate of brochantite in specimens collected from the main dumps of Roughton Gill. It forms tiny (c. 0.25mm) pale apple green drusy aggregates and rarely scaly crystals on compact quartz. Associated brochantite crystals reach 2-3mm and cerussite is occasionally present. First identified on a specimen collected by D.R. Middleton (det. BM(NH): XRD; University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST): IR." Bridges et al. (2011): "Small (c. 0.25 mm) apple green drusy crystals of ‘tsumebite’ in association with brochantite were noted by Cooper and Stanley (1990). It remains an uncommon mineral but has been found in the current study as crusts of similar sized crystals, again associated with brochantite. Tindle et al. (2006) analysed four ‘tsumebite aggregates’ and showed the presence of arsenic in all of them. The arsenic becomes richer towards the outside of the crystals and in one case, at the outer edge of the AsO4/PO4 site, is 53 mol% AsO4 and just falls within the arsentsumebite field."

Locality: Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Locality: Roughton Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK

Habit: tapering blades/prisms

Colour: aquamarine blue

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "Sprays of tapering bladed aquamarine blue transparent crystals to 1.5mm on chrysocolla in quartz have been shown by XRD (BM(NH) & Leeds Univ.) and semi-quantitative EPMA (M. Rothwell, pers. comm.) to be a probable new species. Only two very small specimens have been found (J. Dickinson & P. Braithwaite Collections). The XRD pattern is closely related to that of the magnesium phosphate bobierrite (D.I. Green, pers. comm.)." Bridges et al. (2011): "A copper calcium sodium pyro-phosphate hydrate occurring as ‘sprays of tapering bladed aquamarine crystals’ was described as an unknown species from the dumps of Roughton Gill Mine by Cooper and Stanley (1990, pp. 132-133). [...] Wooldridgeite was identified on a few small specimens collected by the late Peter Braithwaite and the late John Dickinson on the 90-fathom level dumps at Roughton Gill Mine. It occurs as pale ice-blue tapering prismatic crystals, which exceptionally reach 1.8 mm in length, but are usually much smaller than this. The crystals are commonly associated with ‘chrysocolla’ in porous quartz. They are very late in the paragenetic sequence. A few overgrow recent fractures in the quartz matrix which indicate a post-mining origin. It has not been found in this study."

Localities:

Habit: blades up to 0.2mm long and crusts in a cavity in altered chalcopyrite-galena matrix.

Description: Cooper & Stanley (1990): "Specimen in the D.I. Green collection, identified by the collector at Leeds University (XRD, 1987). Almost certainly dump-formed."

Localities: Reported from at least 6 localities in this region.

Habit: tablets and plates.

Colour: yellow and orange-yellow to orange.