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.

Visit website

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

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...

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...

Norseman Historical Museum

A lucky horse finds gold and over a hundred years later a museum moves into the old School of Mines.

This museum has one of the most unusual and quirky items you will ever see - ask to see the typewriter keys! (Story below). Norseman Historical Museum celebrates the Goldfields, mining and local...

Northam Heritage Centre: Northam and Districts Historical Society and Northam Army Camp Heritage Association

Historic railway station captures Northam’s history

Northam’s old railway station remains in such good condition that it’s easy to imagine it as it was from its earliest days in 1900. The station formed part of the Eastern Goldfields Railway which, at...

Forrest Museum

An intrepid four-wheel drive or fly in to visit this museum

This little museum is in a location that could best be described, in Australia, as ‘woop woop’ - or, the back of beyond! The Forrest Museum is in the old weather station and shares the aviation, rail...

Eyre Bird Observatory Museum

A cosy natural history museum and bird observatory on the Great Australian Bight.

Visit a museum and bird observatory in one of the most isolated places in the world. Unwind, relax and take in the natural beauty and the natural history collection. The one-room museum includes...