Smithsonite on Fluorite (classic old Ireland locale)

Item Description

Partially translucent, waxy luster, bubbly botryoids of straw-yellow cadmium-rich smithsonite cover the fluorite core on this showy and uncommon combination on this classic and desirable old-timer from this extinct small Irish zinc deposit worked in about 1862-63 (MINDAT). Mined for the sphalerite, the smithsonite was originally left on the spoil mounds as gangue material! We almost never see these for sale today! Pieces like this were said to be collected in remining of the dumps in the 1960s and 1970s, but few are to be found today.