Gaspeite
Gaspeite for sale...click here
Gaspeite is a rare nickel carbonate. The
Australian material that has been on the market, has all come from only one location....
near a tiny outback
town called Widgiemooltha in Western Australia.
During the course of a nickel mining
operation, the gaspeite was unearthed. Being an exceptionally high grade
nickel ore,
it was stockpiled for later treatment (the gaspeite being
mixed in with many thousands of tons of other material).
For various reasons, portions of this
stockpile were more or less abandoned by the mining company. After
numerous parties made frequent collecting trips,
the company decided to
sell the gaspeite rights to the highest bidder. In 1997 an American
gemstone dealer finally won the bidding.
I was on site to assist during the
operation. Unfortunately, all that remains at the site now, is the
left over rock that we sifted through.
If you're lucky, you may find some
crumbs that we missed.
During 2008 another major nickel mining operation took place at this location. A
new open cut pit has been created and the waste rock
surrounding the
orebody has been deposited on top of the old stockpiles. This means
that any chance of recovering any remaining gaspeite is now gone,
buried
beneath a mountain of overburden that probably exceeds a quarter of a
million tons.
From time to time, small amounts of gaspeite become available from some of the earlier collectors.
