Hopeite, Parahopeite

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Hopeite and parahopeite are RARE hydrated zinc phosphates, with the very best specimens worldwide coming from the famous Broken Hill Mine of Zambia. This EXTREMELY RICH and showy honeycomb specimen from the Brent Lockhart Collection has gemmy and lustrous, orange-brown hopeite prisms to 3 mm on a nearly solid matrix of glassy, pastel yellow-green parahopeite crystals. Broken Hill is the Type Locality for parahopeite. We lovingly call them bat-poop minerals because their crystallization is spurred by the rich nitrates from centuries, or millenia, of bat droppings in the caverns here (so I have been told long ago!). Uncommonly pretty combo material for these two dimorph species, which probably dates to the 1950-60s.