Paradamite (Illustrated)

$15,000.00

Free shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

T

The ArkenstoneFeatured

3,403 for sale·Member since 2026

It is hard to overstate the importance to a collection and to mineral collecting of display quality rare species, those relatively few minerals of the earth's 5000-plus that are only found in a few locations and also only a few pockets over all of our known history of collecting. They have outsized impact on display and also in importance to a collection, in my opinion. This is a beautiful and significant, hugely important example of the rare species paradamite from one of only two locations on the planet that produces specimens worth collecting for display purposes - Tsumeb, being the other. Ojuela Mine has historically produced amazing minerals, in zones that come and go over the decades as miners work up and down the levels. However, paradamite has only come from a very very few finds, since the mine started in the 1800s. Specimens of this sheer size and richness are thought to be counted on one hand, quite literally. It is a solid mass of crystals, to 4 cm across, showing individual sprays and terminations within; and with a dramatic center field of view. This has been analysed (University of Arizona); and was previously in the noted collection of Ron Pellar. It was illustrated in the Mineralogical Record, May 2013.