Leiteite (ultra rare, from Type Locality)

Item Description

Leiteite is a very rare zinc arsenate mineral species named in 1977 from a single aberrant specimen found at Tsumeb, and then found sparsely in a few more pockets in the so-called germanium levels of the final and deepest part of the mine. In all the previous years at Tsumeb, none had been found until the miners went down to a third oxidation zone and encountered a bizarrely germanium-rich zone from which new species came in profusion. Ludlockite and leiteite among the most well known. Most of the examples of these species are fibrous. This specimen, however, is a large elongate lathelike crystal. It is also extremely translucent and attractive, whereas most leiteite is opaque, fibrous, and looks more like white asbestos than a mineral specimen. This is a superb example of the species and an important specimen of good size for a leiteite.