Beudantite (rare)

Item Description

Here we have an a seldom seen specimen of the rare lead iron arsenate species, Beudantite, named for François Beudant (1787-1850), a French mineralogist at the University of Paris. Beudantite has been found in various metallic deposits as a secondary mineral, but its varying crystal habits and colors make it a notably diverse species, as it rarely looks the same from any two localities. The crystals from Tsumeb are typically brown to dark golden-brown in color, but I've seen golden and greenish colored crystals from this mine as well. This piece hosts small (about 3 mm) crystals of dark golden-brown colored Beudantite that are best seen under magnification. There are some unidentified greenish micro crystals which could be Gartrellite or Olivenite, along with some gemmy colorless Calcite crystals. We've photographed the piece with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate the quality. A cool rarity for any Tsumeb collector.