Rock 365 : Day 50 : Billingham Main Anhydrite #365photos

Day 50 : Another rock from the Boulby Mine, this time it is the Billingham Main Anhydrite. Anhydrite, calcium sulphate (CaSO₄) is an essential raw material in the manufacture of sulphuric acid and ammonium sulphate fertiliser. Principally mined at Billingham in the 1960s, the ICI complex, of which the mine was a part, was the second largest chemical factory in the world. A visit by Aldous Huxley to the Billingham site is said to have inspired his novel “Brave New World”