Dioptase and Chrysocolla on Quartz

Unknown Owner

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Owned by Marius Steiner since the late 1980s the Omaue mine at Kaokoveld Plateau in Namibia is often seen on labels as "Steiner mine" which is the case here. It has predominantly been operated as a specimen mine, producing specimens of Dioptase and Shattuckite. This cabinet-sized specimen from the Kessler Collection in Germany shows a greyish-white Quartz matrix the surfaces of which are coated in very pale blue-green microbotryoidal Chrysocolla or Plancheite upon which very dark emerald-green elongated Dioptase crystals are scattered, with concentrations within cavities. There are a cluster of crystals sheared off at the edge of one of the cavities where they appear to have been attached to the removed side of the cavity wall, but within the pockets the crystals are generally really well-formed and some as very 3-dimensional doubly-terminated crystals, up to 7 mm in length, and with a very bright glassy lustre.