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Smithsonite

$5,000.00

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Crystal Classics
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Tucson, Arizona, USA
7,543 for sale·132 sold
A fine display of lustrous rare blue-green translucent crystalline Smithsonite richly lining a 1.5 cm deep cavity in a ferruginous Smithsonite-Goethite matrix. This showy large miniature is from the Tsumeb mine in Namibia where Smithsonite occurs in the supergene near-surface region and all oxidation zones in a wide variety of colours and habits. In this specimen the Smithsonite forms globular spherules with an appearance, texture and lustre of gelatinous droplets or squidgy jelly sweets! Their colour is striking as each globule can vary from sea-green to ultramarine blue. This is a beautiful Tsumeb Smithsonite, of unusual and rare colour and habit, made all the more aesthetic by lining this shallow vug of striking contrast.

Product details

Species
SmithsoniteAbout Smithsonite →
SizeSmall Cabinet
Dimensions5.8 x 6.0 x 2.9 cm
Listed on10/24/2024
Locality
Namibia, Oshikoto Region, TsumebRegional guide →
SKUCC8062

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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.