Ankerite

Ca(Fe2+,Mg)(CO3)2

Ankerite occurs as cream-coloured rhombohedral or saddle-shaped crystals and is very difficult to visually distinguish from ferroan dolomite. Some reported occurrences may in fact be ferroan dolomite.

Selected Australian Occurrences:

  • As thin yellow to brown branching veins up to several tens of centimetres length in the limestone of Jenolan Caves, New South Wales.
  • Henty Gold Mine, Tasmania.
  • Renison Mine, Tasmania.
  • In carbonate veins in the Victorian goldfields.
Ankerite with colourless prismatic quartz and minor chalcopyrite, Henty Gold Mine, Tasmania. Width of view 3.5mm.