Descloizite from Berg Aukas Mine, Otjozondjupa Region, Namibia - image 1
Descloizite from Berg Aukas Mine, Otjozondjupa Region, Namibia - image 2

Descloizite from Berg Aukas Mine, Otjozondjupa Region, Namibia

Sharp, flawless and glowing Descloizite jewel from Namibia.

Featured in Mineral Collections in Arizona-I May-June 2013 Supplement The Mineralogical Record; page 225.

On special exhibit at University of Arizona Mineral Museum Tucson, January-December 2014 as part of The Best of the Best, Prize Minerals from the Vaults of Arizona's Collectors.

Chris Whitney-Smith collection

Product details

SpeciesDescloizite
SizeMiniature
Dimensions4.5 x 3.8 x 1.8 cm
Added on09/04/2026
LocalityNamibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Berg Aukas Mine
RepairsNone
Publications
  • Mineralogical Record Mineral Collections in Arizona-I May-June 2013 supplement page 225

Current owner

Chris Whitney-Smith
Chris Whitney-Smith
Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Member since 2025

Learn more

Descloizite
Mineral guide
Learn about Descloizite
lead-zinc vanadate with lustrous rosettes, black-to-brown tones, and warm translucence; top localities Otavi, Namibia and Ojuela, Mexico.
Descloizite
Regional guide
Descloizite from Berg Aukas Mine, Namibia
Berg Aukas descloizite is one of the great “species-defining” classics: the locality by which serious collectors judge descloizite. The best pieces have a sculptural, almost architectural presence—dark brown to nearly black spear-point crystals, glossy blades, jackstraw bundles, radiating rosettes, and sharply terminated clusters that can look metallic under a show lamp yet glow warm reddish brown along thinner edges. Many specimens sit in pleasing contrast on pale calcite, dolomite, smithsonite, or willemite-bearing matrix, giving the dark vanadate crystals the visual authority of black lacquer against limestone.
Locality guide
Berg Aukas Mine
Berg Aukas Mine, Namibia - a premier Otavi Mountainland locality famed for dark descloizite crystals, vanadates, and rich smithsonite, prized by collectors.