Calcite ps. after Mimetite with Malachite - image 1

Calcite ps. after Mimetite with Malachite

Unknown Owner

Even by Tsumeb's standards this is a really weird miniature specimen. Like a small white Hedgehog, this delicate sample is dominated by 5 to 6 mm long sparkling white freestanding Calcite 'spines' radiating upwards through a green Malachite base on Calcite coated limestone. Under magnification, the narrow Calcite prisms are seen to be somewhat hexagonal in outline and coated in a myriad of tiny colourless to white rhombs, and represent a replacement, or pseudomorph, after Mimetite crystals. The Malachite, which perhaps formed afterwards, infills some of the spaces around the base of these Calcite pseudomorphs as a somewhat velvety layer, with finely crystallized acicular terminations like fine blades of grass. A pretty oddity from Tsumeb. Ex the generations old Weyand collection at Tsumeb.