Cuprian Smithsonite - image 1
Cuprian Smithsonite - image 2
specimen video

Cuprian Smithsonite

$3,500.00

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Crystal Classics
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Tucson, Arizona, USA
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The green, copper-rich variety of Smithsonite referred to as Cuprian Smithsonite is one of the rarer varieties of Smithsonite seen worldwide. Tsumeb mine is known to have produced it along with its diverse range of other coloured Smithsonites but specimens are usually small and poorly crystallized - as botryoidal crusts or replacement casts. This miniature specimen is extremely unusual in presenting sharp crystals of this green form. Uniformly pale peppermint green in colour the crystals are also extremely unusual in form, representing pointed highly elongated crystals almost acicular in habit. This makes it an extremely select piece. It comes from the recently acquired generations-old Weyand collection in Tsumeb.

Product details

Species
SmithsoniteAbout Smithsonite →
SizeSmall Cabinet
Dimensions6.3 x 4.3 x 2.8 cm
Listed on09/06/2025
Locality
Namibia, Oshikoto Region, TsumebRegional guide →
SKUCC52958

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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.