Leiteite (ultra-rare - Type Locality) Marty Zinn Coll.

Item Description

Leiteite is an ULTRA RARE zinc arsenate and Holy Grail rare species for the famous and now-closed Tsumeb Mine, which is the Type Locality. It was 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 are among the most well known. This is a HUGE for the species, elongate, fibrous, bright pearlescent example, amongst the largest known. It is a superb example of the species and an important specimen of great size for a leiteite crystal. Ex Fred & Becky Bird and Marty Zinn Collections. Value? Hard to say for such a large and very fine rarity. $2500-3000 would not be out of the realm and I have seen nothing on the market recently of this quality.