Descloizite - image 1

Descloizite

Unknown Owner
Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.
Sign in to contribute
This is not modern material but 25-40 years old now! This is a very large, very rich specimen with fabulous blooms of dark chocolate crystals (they appear lighter in the photos but are actually a prettier, richer brown hue) that rise as much as 2.5 cm above the matrix. Descloizite as a rule can be a pretty ugly mineral, but in the case of super specimens such as this, it is actually very striking - and again, these Berg Aukus specimens set the standard for the species.

Product details

SpeciesDescloizite
SizeSmall Cabinet
Dimensions9.5 x 8.9 x 4.9 cm
Added on10/23/2024
LocalityNamibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Berg Aukas Mine

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
08/2024Unknown OwnerNot disclosed
—The ArkenstoneNot disclosed

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.