Smithsonite - image 1
Smithsonite - image 2
specimen video

Smithsonite

Unknown Owner
A beetle-shaped mound of waxy, burnt toffee orange-brown Smithsonite crystals, each of around 7 to 9 mm across. The intergrown crystals completely cover an underlying matrix of oxidised Galena. A very attractive miniature Smithsonite of good colour from the Tsumeb mine in Namibia.

Product details

Species
SmithsoniteAbout Smithsonite →
SizeMiniature
Dimensions3.1 x 4.7 x 2.5 cm
Added on10/24/2024
Locality
Namibia, Oshikoto Region, TsumebRegional guide →

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
—Unknown Owner$350.00
—Crystal ClassicsNot disclosed

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Smithsonite
Mineral guide
Learn about Smithsonite
ZnCO3 with botryoidal and crystalline forms, silky to vitreous luster, pastel hues from cobalt to yellow; localities boost collecting appeal.
Smithsonite
Regional guide
Smithsonite from Tsumeb, Namibia
is one of the defining collector minerals of Tsumeb: not merely because it is common there, but because Tsumeb turns a usually massive or botryoidal zinc carbonate into a locality signature mineral with uncommon crystal variety, depth of color, and association. Tsumeb smithsonite spans the familiar apple-greens and blue-greens of copper-bearing material, soft pink to violet-pink cobaltoan and manganoan-looking rhombs, yellow-brown and chocolate-brown iron-rich crystals, pale grey to white crusts, colorless to translucent rhombs, and rare red-pink material from the deeper oxidized workings. The best specimens combine sharp rhombohedral or scalenohedral crystals with the sculptural mineralogical theater for which Tsumeb is famous: galena-rich sulfide matrix, sugary dolomite, black tennantite and pyrite ore, cerussite, mimetite, malachite, wulfenite, duftite, dioptase, and willemite.