Cobaltoan Dolomite

The Kakanda deposit in Kambove District, Lualaba, DR Congo is a series of openpit copper mines many of which were abandoned years ago. The Kakanda deposit was known to produce stunning vivid pink Cobalt-bearing Dolomite during the 1980s but the output of specimens was quite limited. In very recent times a trickle of new specimens have come to the market, some with quite distinctive features. This lovely miniature specimen shows one of those features: it displays a very intense pink colour, but as zoning within the Dolomite. A bed of white to beige coloured Dolomite is coated with rhombic crystals, to 3 mm on edge, with a similar beige to darker brown core rimmed with bright pink. The contrast in colours accentuates the structure of the crystals, the pink looking like the 'frame' of the rhombic form. A very distinctive and interesting specimen.