Calamine (mineral) Calamine (mineral) Calamine is a historic name for an ore of zinc. The name "calamine" was derived from "lapis calaminaris", a Latin corruption of Greek "cadmia (καδμία)", the old name for zinc ores in general. The name of the Belgian town of Kelmis, "La Calamine" in French, which was home to a zinc mine, comes from that. In the 18th and 19th centuries large ore mines could be found near the German village of Breinigerberg. During the early 19th century it was discovered that what had been thought to be one ore was actually two distinct minerals: Although chemically and
Thermo Electric Ore Reduction Corporation Mill the Hodgkinson River scattered over the surface as bunches in quartzose boulders or in drifts interspersed with coarse gravels. In 1900, 91 pounds of molybdenite was also discovered. This was said to contain some of the finest specimens of molybdenite discovered anywhere in Australia. Wolfram is composed of a heavy gray-white metallic element, with pure wolfram being used mainly in electrical applications and is also the ore from which tungsten is refined. In 1899 wolfram was returning £38 per ton. Other than along the Hodgkinson, wolfram has been located in north Queensland at Bamford Hill approximately west-south-west of Cairns in