Rosasite

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Mineral guide

Learn about Rosasite

copper-zinc carbonate hydroxide with vivid blue-green, velvety botryoids; prized for color, texture, and classic localities like Laurion and Ojuela.

Regional guide

Rosasite from Tsumeb, Namibia

from Tsumeb is a connoisseur’s mineral: rarely the loudest species on the specimen, but often the one that makes a Tsumeb piece intellectually irresistible. In the hand it appears as silky blue-green to turquoise mammillary coatings, fine fibrous lawns, sheaflike aggregates, and — most coveted of all — pseudomorphs after earlier copper carbonates. The best examples have the unmistakable Tsumeb look: a tight paragenetic story preserved in color and texture, with rosasite woven among azurite, malachite, cerussite, willemite, smithsonite, duftite, mimetite, calcite, dolomite, and quartz.