Smithsonite (cadmium-bearing) (rare for the locality)

Item Description

Smithsonite is one of the most popular and well carbonate minerals in the world. It's popularity lies in the fact that its found in good number of world localities, in a wide range of colors and styles. The famous Kelly Mine in New Mexico is one of the world's premier localities for the species, well-known for producing some of the finest blue Smithsonite specimens ever found the world. Recently (within the last 5 years) our friends were able to collect these new and exciting speicmens of a notably different color than what most people would associate with the locality. We picked up a handful of nice specimens specifically to put in the auctions. As mentioned these piece have a yellow color, which is certainly rare for the Kelly Mine. This small discovery was made in what was called the "Sardinia Stope" of the mine (in reference to the famous Masua Mine in Sardinia, Italy which produced comparable desirable YELLOW Smithsonites many years ago). The color is due to cadmium content, and I've seen one specimen online that says the color is from hawleyite-greenockite inclusions, but I can't say if that's the case with this piece. This piece is a polished specimen (most of them were polished due to the nature of the material) featuring banded soft yellow (cadmium-bearing) Smithsonite along with more golden and brown sections. If you collect Smithsonite, minerals of New Mexico or cool secondary ore minerals, don't miss out on this beautiful and exciting newly discovered piece for your collection. Specimen weight is 337.8 grams. Valued $1,500.