Hydrozincite var. Cave Pearl

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This is something that we don't see very often and a super example. 'Cave Pearls' are carbonate concretions formed by the flow and precipitation of solids upon grains of sand, or gravel, on the floor of caves or mines. Like a stalactite, or stalagmite they are deposited in layers, but rather than forming a tube or long finger, they are oval and coated all round from where they sit, suspended, in pools of water on the cave/mine floor. This egg-shaped Cave Pearl comes from Derbyshire where they have been know for centuries, but this one comes from the lesser known locality of Rose Rake at Cromford. Collected by John A. Jones, probably in the 1970s, Rose Rake is one of the veins on Cromford Hill to the west of Cromford and is known to have been worked during the 18th century. This great Cave Pearl is labelled as Hydrozincite but it has not been analysed and could well be Aragonite or Calcite.