Malachite and Rosasite on Smithsonite

Item Description

Glistening clusters of Smithsonite along with spherules of colorful Malachite and Rosasite line an elongate vug on this uncommon combination specimen from Touissit, Morocco. The Smithsonite sparkles nicely and the crystals are of two distinct colors: a translucent green and a translucent white. The greenish hued Smithsonite may be attributed to underlying Malachite on that end of the piece and the white-ish color on the other end to just the Smithsonite itself. Both color varietals are translucent and just sparkle with any incident light! The white Smithsonite is interesting too as it has more of stout, somewhat rounded, polycrystalline, scalenohedral habit compared to the true botryoidal character of the material on the other half of the piece. Spherules of satin lustered, blue-green Rosasite from 3 to 9 mm are distributed locally on top of the Smithsonite and add great color and textural contrast. The vug is developed in a tan to brownish altered matrix that shows tiny, 1 mm, blue crystals of Azurite and a little disseminated Malachite. It is an unusual mineral combo from this lead-zinc deposit, obviously an old specimen.