Name: Otavite and Rosasite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 7500 USD
Availability: InStock

Otavite and Rosasite

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This is a very beautiful, rich, and very rare specimen of otavite with rosasite from the great Tsumeb Mine! Otavite is one of the rarest species found at this locality - which is also the type locality. It is an exceedingly rare cadmium carbonate and specimens of this species came out of the first oxidation zone around 1900. There have been claims of newer finds, however, any substantiation is lacking and most specimens tested by ourselves and others have simply been cadmian rich dolomite or something else. TRUE otavite remains rare, and we would suggest that many specimens online, particularly sold early before analysis was more accessible, will not meet the threshold of cadmium content to be truly otavite. We believe, as did Mark Feinglos and Bill Pinch as my mentors, that otavite is actually much more rare than thought, therefore. On this attractive combination piece, the otavite richly covers the interior of a slight depression on one side and consists of a rich coating of tiny (almost 1 mm), glistening white crystals. We have had otavite before, usually on ugly matrix. However, this is actually attractive because of the rare association with blue-green rosasite present on the crest of the piece. A very colorful and rare Tsumeb miniature! Trimmed out of a single large piece in a collection in Europe, broken up into a few aesthetic trims (of which this was the finest). Tested at University of Arizona.