
Image Credit: Malcolm Southwood

Image Credit: Malcolm Southwood


Specimen Title
Malachite after cuprite (w. smithsonite)
Associated Minerals
mimetite; quartz; smithsonite
Principal Mineral
Precursor Mineral
Size
Thumbnail; 24mm
Location in the Mine
First oxidation zone; Open Pit
Provenance
Klein, W.
Collection
MGMH; 126908
Entry Number
Specimen; TSNB755
Description
A sharp pseudomorph of malachite after a modified cubo-octahedral cuprite crystal on a small shard of matrix. The malachite has subsequently been encrusted with a thin layer of colourless – or perhaps very pale green (?) – microcrystalline smithsonite. The matrix shard consists of quartz and malachite but, like the pseudomorph, has been partly encrusted with microcrystalline smithsonite (Exhibit 2). Minute (< 0.2 mm) yellow mimetite crystals are present on the matrix smithsonite.
This was specimen 588 in the collection of Wilhelm Klein, production manager at Tsumeb between 1916 and 1939. His catalogue records that it is from the Open Pit at the top of the first oxidation zone.