Image Credit: Malcolm Southwood
Image Credit: Malcolm Southwood
Specimen Title
Smithsonite
Principal Mineral
Size
Cabinet; 105mm
Location in the Mine
Undetermined
Provenance
Weinrich, D.
Collection
Southwood, M.; MS2011.214
Entry Number
Specimen; TSNB803
Description
A pale, spearmint-green zinkschale ("shell") of dense but highly porous smithsonite. Tiny smithsonite crystals form small vermicular and framboidal aggregates, arranged in discontinuous layers sometimes separated by open space.
The specimen was purchased from Dan Weinrich, but with no record of earlier provenance or location in the mine.
The specimen has been analysed by EMPA-WDS and LA-ICP-MS as part of a study of the causes of colour in smithsonite (Weall 2023; Southwood et al. 2025). They hypothesised that the principal chromophore is Cu (27466 ppm) which is almost certainly in solid solution in the smithsonite lattice. Analytical data is presented in Exhibit 2.
