Wittenoom, Western Australia
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Wittenoom is a former mining town and a declared contaminated site, 1,420 kilometres north-north-east of Perth, in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The declared contamin
State government warning sign near the entrance to the former Wittenoom township
Advertisement by Western Australian Government Tourist Bureau, 1960s
Road sign with the town's name patched over
Doc Holidays cafe (abandoned) at the entrance to the town
Riebeckite
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Riebeckite is a sodium-rich member of the amphibole group of silicate minerals. It has chemical formula Na2Si8O222. It forms a solid solution series with magnesioriebeckite, where Mg substitutes for F
Wittenoom, Western Australia
…advises against all travel through Wittenoom and the surrounding areas". The area around Wittenoom was mainly pastoral until the 1940s when mining for blue asbestos began. In 1947, a company town was established and grew to a peak population of 881 in 1961. Following the closure of the mine in 1966, the town declined…
Black riebeckite in an alkaline pegmatite from Lindinosa near Évisa, Corsica, France
Crocidolite, variety of riebeckite, from Pomfret Mine, Vryburg, South Africa