Galena Pocket 1999
Renisonbell mine is located in Rosebury on the Nth West coast of Tasmania .It is a large scale tin mining operation with mining activities nearly 1 Km underground in depth . I have been fortunate to have gone underground numerous times in the past 10 years . Wonderful green flourite specimens were found in the 1970 ‘s by Mike Phelan. Sporadic specimens have been found over the past 20 years including Calcites , Pyrites ,Quartz ,Chalcopryrites and small Flourites .
During my trips underground it was rare to see more than a few scraps of pyrite or calcite on my trips. When told about the new Galena pocket I was very excited , I managed to get a trip underground helping collect sample bags and drill cores . On reaching the stope ,spray paint on the wall indicated the direction of the cavity . It was in the roof of the stope about 20 ft up, ,unfortunately the cavity had been raided by the miners .
The grid mesh was place on the roof to stabilise and secure any loose rock that might fall . The grid was ripped open , which really was quite dangerous ,and the best specimens removed, the cavity was about 3 ft wide opening to a large room that a man could easily move around in . I could see a faint glimmer of Galena from where I was standing . I was not in a position to reach the pocket and remove any specimens as this was not the purpose of the trip , but it was a great experience to see where they came from. My camera lens kept fogging up as it was quite hot and humid . A loud noise could be heard in the background , further down there was a miner drilling the roof and inserting large steel rods into the room the stabilise it .
I managed to obtain some specimens later from a few dealer as seen below .One of these had galena crystal over 1 inch across , , small crystals were associated with fine quartz crystals ,often coated by calcite .
 Wire to prevent rock fall and roof stabilisation |  stabilising roof with steel pins |  galena crystals |  Aragonite |
 galena crystals |  galena crystals |  galena crystals |