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Notice of an occurrence of niccolite and ullmannite at the Settlingstones Mine, Fourstones, Northumberland; and of serpierite at Ross Island Mine, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Arthur Russell
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Extract

The old mine Settlingstones, situated three miles north of Haydon Bridge in the county of Northumberland, was originally worked as a lead mine, but, during the htst fifty years, as the vein has been explored farther west, it has attained far greater importance as the largest and most consistent producer of witherite in the British Isles. The Settlingstones main vein has a direction approximately north-east and southwest, and has been proved for a distance of nearly 1½ miles. The vein has varied in width from 3 feet up to 40 feet, the most productive witherite-bearing portion averaging 10 to 12 feet. The enclosing rocks are sandstones ('whetstones') and shales ('plate') of Carboniferous age, and dolerite (Whin-sil) which here attains a thickness of a little over 21 fathoms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 21 , Issue 119 , December 1927 , pp. 383 - 387
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1927

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References

page 383 note 1 Many of the specimens I have examined have adhering grey micaceous sandstone, showing that the vein was in part enclosed by that rock.

page 384 note 1 Spencer, L. J., Min. Mag., 1910, vol. 15, p. 302 Google Scholar.

page 386 note 1 Serpierite was described by A. Des Cloizeaux in 1881 as a hydrated basic sulphate of copper and zinc. The only quantitative analysis that has been made of the mineral is one by A. Prenzel (Tschermaks Min. Petr. Mitt., 1894, vol. 14, p. 121), who found also CaO 800 %. The formula was written as 3(Cu,Zn,Ca)SO4 + 3H2O, and it has been so copied. This was, however, evidently intended to be 3 Cu,Zn.Ca;O.SO3.3H2O. But this also is an error, for a slip was made in calculating the molecular ratios. From Frenzel's analysis the ratios are (Cu,Zn,Ca;.O :SO3: H2O = 2-21 :1 :3-07.

page 386 note 2 A detailed and interesting description of this mine is given, along with a plan and section, by Thomas Weaver, F.R.S., in his Geological ‘Relations of the South of Ireland, 1830-1835.