CUPRIAN Smithsonite - image 1
CUPRIAN Smithsonite - image 2
specimen video

CUPRIAN Smithsonite

$3,000.00

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Crystal Classics
Crystal ClassicsFeatured
Tucson, Arizona, USA
7,543 for sale·132 sold
A handsome large cabinet specimen of sparkling Cuprian Smithsonite from the Tsumeb mine in Namibia. With the display face measuring 12 x 9 cm, this forms an impressive mass of light apple to peppermint green crystals as a drusy coating over the pale peppermint-green tinged cream Dolomite matrix. The Smithsonite forms crystal aggregates to about 3 mm diameter with at least a ninety percent coverage across the display face. Smithsonite was ubiquitous throughout the Tsumeb orebody, occurring in all three oxidation zones, although the green Cuprian variety was rare or unknown in the Second Oxidation Zone.

Product details

Species
SmithsoniteAbout Smithsonite →
SizeCabinet
Dimensions12.0 x 9.2 x 5.0 cm
Listed on10/24/2024
Locality
Namibia, Oshikoto Region, TsumebRegional guide →
SKUCC16446

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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.