Zincolivenite from Tsumeb, Oshikoto Region, Namibia

Here's a shade of green from the classic specimen locality: Tsumeb mine, which is a carbonate-domonated Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag deposit with both primary and secondary to supergene mineralization in North Namibia.

During the past, many specimens that were labelled and described as either adamite or ’cuproadamite‘ were likely to be zincolivenite. In olivenite and adamite,the unit cell contains two distinct sites, one of which is favoured by copper and the other by zinc. When Zinc substitution into the monoclinic olivenite structure produces zincolivenite, the mineral describe herein.

This was purchased in 2020 in Tucson show, I was amazed by the unusually sharp (and also big size compare to most of the finds), and gemmy crystals than others I have seen from worldwide.

Zincolivenite, 3.5cm Tsumeb mine, Tsumeb, Oshi-koto region, Namibia.

Jingnan (Tom) Zhang Coll and Photo