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Mines/Australia

Murrin Murrin mine

Murrin Murrin mine, Australia. Producing, open pit, mining nickel, cobalt.

Why Murrin Murrin is famous

Open-pit nickel-cobalt mine 60 km east of Leonora, Western Australia. USGS records 2,000 t of cobalt capacity and ownership of Minara (60%) and Glencore (40%) in 2020-21.1,2

Story cards

Timeline

  1. September 1969 to February 1970Poseidon nickel share boom3
  2. 1969Windarra and Mount Keith nickel found4

What kind of deposit

Nickel laterite

Murrin Murrin today

Where nickel is mined todayWhere cobalt is mined todayMining in Australia

Where next

Events

HerePoseidon nickel share boomA mine from the same area and mineral story: Murrin Murrin.3HereWindarra and Mount Keith nickel foundA mine from the same area and mineral story: Murrin Murrin.4

Places

Came out ofKookynieFollow the region on to a modern operation: Murrin Murrin.5

Deposit types

An example ofNickel lateriteA working example of the nickel laterite type.6

Sources

  1. Minerals Yearbook 2020-21, volume III: The Mineral Industry of Australia US Geological Survey
  2. data/minerals/operations.csv Prospector Trails (internal)
  3. Three Australian Asset-price Bubbles (J. Simon, 2003 conference paper) Reserve Bank of Australia
  4. Nickel (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  5. Wikidata item Q6430562 (Kookynie)
  6. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Salar de Atacama, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Kopermijn te Kolwezi in de provincie Shaba (Katanka), Mieremet, Rob / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).