baryte (w. smithsonite)

An intergrowth of tabular, translucent orange-brown baryte crystals (to 15 mm), colour zoned and partly overgrown by colourless-white smithsonite (which clearly post-dates the baryte). The smithsonite forms sheaves (to c. 5 mm) made up of parallel intergrowths of rhombohedral crystals. A single crystal face of the baryte (at lower left in Exhibit 1) is spotted with pale yellow micro-botryoidal mimetite (?); a rib of partly oxidised galena (?) runs through the base of the specimen.

Purchased from Ian Bruce in 2014 and formerly in the collection of Eike Pätz. The location in the mine is not recorded but the paragenesis is indicative of the first oxidation zone; compare with MGMH 89188 (TSNB396), a specimen from 6 Level originally in the collection of Wihelm Klein.

galena (?); mimetite (?); smithsonite