Prosopite, doyleite and otavite from Coldstones Quarry, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire

THE Lower Carboniferous (Dinantian) limestones worked at Coldstones Quarry, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire [National Grid Reference SE 123 641] are cut by several veins which carry fluorite, baryte, galena and sphalerite. These veins lie immediately north of the North Craven Fault System (Dunham and Wilson, 1985). Where exposed in the quarry the veins are strongly oxidized and the supergene minerals hemimorphite, smithsonite and cerussite are abundant, commonly lining cavities which may represent original pockets of sphalerite and galena. Traces of aurichalcite and rosasite have been reported together with local concentrations of cinnabar of supergene origin (Young et al., 1989). Recent examination of oxidized veinstone, collected from fallen blocks from the Garnet Vein and associated veins exposed in the southern face of the quarry, has revealed the presence of the rare minerals prosopite, doyleite and otavite; all are reported here for the first time from the British Isles.