Skorpion Mine Namibian Smithsonite and Calcite Natural Specimen - 73mm, 168g

Locality - Skorpion Mine, Rosh Pinah, Karas Region, Namibia
Size – 73 x 63 x 36mm
Weight – 168g

This specimen features greyish clear, druzy sparkling dogtooth smithsonite crystals coated with a secondary growth of milky white, shiny rhomboidal globules. It is a particularly rare specimen from the Skorpion mine in Namibia, the likes of which are scarce on the market today. This specimen will be accompanied by a locality label.

Smithsonite is a member of the calcite group of minerals renowned by specimen collectors for its astonishingly wide variety of vivid colours and attractive, typically globular formations. Whilst it is comprised mainly of zinc carbonate, the zinc is often partially replaced by various other elements such as copper or cadmium which causes colour variation in some specimens. Smithsonite was originally named 'calamine' along with hemimorphite, since the two were visibly indistinguishable and thus believed to be a single mineral. It was named in 1832 in honor of the British chemist and mineralogist James Smithson who first distinctively identified the mineral in 1802 and later founded the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution. Large, well-formed crystals of smithsonite are incredibly rare and occur only in Tsumeb, Namibia and Broken Hill in Zambia, though many mines throughout the world produce fine specimen grade crystals.