Cuprian Smithsonite - image 1
Cuprian Smithsonite - image 2
specimen video

Cuprian Smithsonite

$450.00

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Crystal Classics
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Tucson, Arizona, USA
7,543 for sale·132 sold
Tsumeb mine in Namibia has produced without question, the world's finest crystals of Cuprian Smithsonite. Typically small at best, these still outshine most other green Smithsonites which are invariably botryoidal aggregates everywhere else. This fine miniature specimen from Tsumeb is not only really nicely crystallized, with extremely lustrous, glassy Cuprian Smithsonite microcrystals, but it is a rare example showing the transition in colour and compostion. Internally, the back of the specimen is interspersed primary grey sulphide with minor secondary Cuprite, Rosasite (blue) and layers of cream coloured Smithsonite. This Smithsonite begins as mainly botryoidal, in shades of cream, yellow and grey, but transitions in the end to a lime-green layer of glossy crystals. These crystals are so gemmy that in some areas the underlying yellow core of Smithsonite can be seen through the green. Ex Kessler Collection.

Product details

Species
SmithsoniteAbout Smithsonite →
SizeSmall Cabinet
Dimensions5.7 x 3.6 x 2.3 cm
Listed on01/14/2026
Locality
Namibia, Oshikoto Region, TsumebRegional guide →
SKUCC55880

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Smithsonite
Mineral guide
Learn about Smithsonite
ZnCO3 with botryoidal and crystalline forms, silky to vitreous luster, pastel hues from cobalt to yellow; localities boost collecting appeal.
Smithsonite
Regional guide
Smithsonite from Tsumeb, Namibia
is one of the defining collector minerals of Tsumeb: not merely because it is common there, but because Tsumeb turns a usually massive or botryoidal zinc carbonate into a locality signature mineral with uncommon crystal variety, depth of color, and association. Tsumeb smithsonite spans the familiar apple-greens and blue-greens of copper-bearing material, soft pink to violet-pink cobaltoan and manganoan-looking rhombs, yellow-brown and chocolate-brown iron-rich crystals, pale grey to white crusts, colorless to translucent rhombs, and rare red-pink material from the deeper oxidized workings. The best specimens combine sharp rhombohedral or scalenohedral crystals with the sculptural mineralogical theater for which Tsumeb is famous: galena-rich sulfide matrix, sugary dolomite, black tennantite and pyrite ore, cerussite, mimetite, malachite, wulfenite, duftite, dioptase, and willemite.