WA School of Mines Mineral Museum Overview

WA School of Mines Mineral Museum

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Be mesmerised by minerals.

More than just rocks of the region, this collection is a learning tool, with mineral specimens from all around the world, housed in a beautiful heritage building. The minerals include sulphides, like pyrite or fool’s gold; carbonates such as calcspar and dolomite; and native elements such as graphite. Unfortunately, there are no diamonds in the collection! The mineral samples were used as teaching aids at the WA School of Mines, which first opened in Coolgardie in 1902, and then relocated to Kalgoorlie a few years later.

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Address:

117 Egan Street
Kalgoorlie WA 6430
Australia

Tel:

(08) 9088 6170

Email:

WASM-MECEAdministration@curtin.edu.au

Opening Hours

Mon to Fri 9am - 4:30pm

Pyrite from Broad Arrow

Listen to the rocks talk

Minerals like galena and pyrite were used as conductors in early crystal radios. If you wrap chicken wire around a large pyrite sample and shape it into a dish, you can pick up radio waves. It is as...

Malachite from Murin Murin

Viridescent deposit

Malachite, a carbonate of copper, is one of the oldest known green pigments. Malachite was used as an indicator of the presence of copper. This sample is from the Anaconda copper mine near Murin Murin...

Staurolite

Twinning

Staurolite, a silicate, is used in geology as an 'index mineral'. This means it is used to estimate depth, temperature and pressure changes to rock, like movement of the earth’s crust or magma...

Merredin Military Museum

Commemorating the armed services

For military buffs, this place has an interesting collection of items from World War I to the Vietnam War. You won't be able to miss ‘Huey’ an Iroquois UH-1H and the Kiowa, two Vietnam War era...

Esperance Museum

The largest museum collection outside Perth

You will need more than one visit to take in this impressive collection. The museum is a short stroll from the foreshore, in a historic railway building. Get lost in the large collection of items...

Yilgarn History Museum

A meeting place between the Goldfields and the Wheatbelt

A visit to the Yilgarn Museum is a journey through the history of Southern Cross, which is sometimes referred to as the gateway to the Goldfields region. The museum building is the original courthouse...

Old Newcastle Gaol

Harsh realities of early prison life on show at Newcastle Gaol Museum

Enter Newcastle Gaol Museum and find yourself hurtling back in time to imagine life as a prisoner here from 1865 to the early 1900s. The tiny cells are most disturbing, particularly the Aboriginal...