Smithsonite on Sulfide Matrix - image 1
Smithsonite on Sulfide Matrix - image 2
Smithsonite on Sulfide Matrix - image 3
Smithsonite on Sulfide Matrix - image 4

Smithsonite on Sulfide Matrix

Unknown Owner
The most famous locality in the world for smithsonite is certainly the Tsumeb mine. Smithsonite was found in abundance in a variety of habits and colors at the mine while it was producing. Perhaps one of the best known varieties of smithsonite was the cobaltoan pink. This particular specimen features large rhombohedrons up to 1.1cm across! The crystals are a gemmy lustrous pink that tickles the fancy of any smithsonite collector.

Product details

Species
SmithsoniteAbout Smithsonite →
SizeMiniature
Dimensions5.0 x 3.2 x 3.0 cm
Added on03/26/2025
Locality
Namibia, Oshikoto Region, TsumebRegional guide →

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
09/2025Unknown OwnerNot disclosed
—DanZ RockshopNot disclosed

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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.