Adamite and Smithsonite with Tsumcorite - image 1
Adamite and Smithsonite with Tsumcorite - image 2
specimen video

Adamite and Smithsonite with Tsumcorite

Unknown Owner
Well-formed, bladed to almost platy crystals of Adamite are richly distributed over Smithsonite and minor Tsumcorite from the famous Tsumeb mine in the Oshikoto Region of Namibia. The lustrous Adamite crystals measure to 1 cm, have a translucent light yellow to white colour and richly cover much of the Smithsonite coated matrix. Adamite with no copper content from Tsumeb is considered uncommon, making this a fine example of 'pure' Adamite. Abundant translucent, cream, spiky rice-grain Smithsonite crystals underlie the Adamite and sparsely scattered over the base are micro-crystalline to botryoidal areas of yellow to brown Tsumcorite. Tsumcorite is a rare hydrated lead arsenate discovered in 1971 and is named for the Tsumeb Corporation.

Product details

Species
Smithsonite, Tsumcorite, AdamiteAbout Smithsonite →
SizeMiniature
Dimensions3.4 x 4.6 x 2.5 cm
Added on10/24/2024
Locality
Namibia, Oshikoto Region, TsumebRegional guide →

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
01/2026Unknown Owner$3,500.00
—Crystal ClassicsNot disclosed

Learn more

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.