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

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...

Dead Finish Museum

Beers and bodies: a former pub and morgue now houses a museum

You can almost smell the beer flowing, and the conversation of sandalwood cutters and haulers in this museum, which is named after the old hotel in which it is housed. The hotel was affectionately...

City of Kalgoorlie - Boulder Art Collection

City's art collection

In 1955 Claude Hotchin gave a collection of 32 art works to the Municipality of Kalgoorlie. The Claude Hotchin Bequest includes important works by Ernest Philpot, Hans Heysen and Walter Ebatarinja, an...

Bluebird Discovery Centre

One Man, His Dream, Our Lake

A New Year’s Eve to remember: Breaking the world water speed record at 444.71 km/h. Blink and you would miss the moment! On 31 December 1964, on Lake Dumbleyung, in his hydroplane Bluebird K7, Donald...

New Norcia Museum

A taste of Europe in the WA bush

Enter New Norcia and you’ll feel as though you have stumbled upon another era. The magnificent buildings, monastery, olive trees and church bells feel as though they would be more at home in Europe...