Olivenite (classic locality)

Item Description

A beautiful and rich specimen of the copper arsenate species, Olivenite from the famed Cap Garonne Mine in France, which closed in 1917. The entry on mindat.org states that this locality is, "currently the most prolific French locality for new species (14 as of January 2014) and also for different valid species (127 as of January 2014)." This piece is loaded with hundreds of micro crystals of olive-green colored Olivenite along with darker forest green Malachite on matrix. The piece is best seen under magnification, and we used a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate the quality.
From the collection of the long time, beloved, well-known French field collector, Paul Zerfass (Collection #783). Zerfass built this worldwide collection over nearly 50 years, many of which were personally collected. A biography featuring specimens from his collection (along with his face on the cover) is in the May - June 2017 issue of French mineral magazine, Le Règne Minéral. We have a .pdf copy of the article for anybody interested in reading it (though it's mostly in French). Just drop us a line and know that you'd like to have a copy.