Mimetite

Unknown Owner

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This Chinese-origin Mimetite discovery rocked the mineral collecting community in 2002-2003. The gemmy, well-formed, and superbly lustrous crystals from these pockets have a fantastic and beautiful look to them, and compare favorably in terms of sheer quality to the great Tsumeb Mimetites of the 1970's. This elongate piece has dozens of bright, burnt-orange, hexagonal crystals that look like polished jewels and range in size from 1 mm to 1 cm, and cover just enough of the matrix to look balanced without being overwhelming. All of the crystals are highly lustrous, simple, flattened hexagonal prisms with mirror-bright pinacoid terminations. This has the best luster AND the best color. The fiery orange crystals on this piece are a choice example of this famous find. Later efforts to find additional crystals were futile and the mine is now flooded. This is a trace of minor edge rubbing on a few crystals, but otherwise this is in excellent condition. This is a superb example for this size range, off the market for 2 decades in the large Chinese subcollection collection of Dr. Steve Smale.