Hilton Mine

Introduction

Hilton Mine is famous throughout the world for its yellow fluorite specimens. 

What is not commonly known is that the lower reaches of the mine produced superb barite specimens as smallish spikey crystals intergrown on dog tooth calcite crystals. 

Back in the early 1980's, myself, Grant Waller and Geoff Smith used to make repeated visits exploring the bottom of Hilton, and recovering pieces of this barite. We had to build a scaffold platform to access the best specimens, which were high up at the top of an old stope, called Wilson's Stope. 

These photos show some of the cavities, and Grant together with Geoff in the stope.