Smithsonite var: Copper-bearing

Item Description

This historic mining district of Lavrion, Greece lies about 50 km south of Athens, and for thousands of years has been a source of metals like copper and lead. This piece is an attractive cabinet specimen from the renowned Hilarion Mine featuring gentle blue colored, translucent, botryoidal Smithsonite aggregates, measuring up to about 8 mm across, sitting on oxidized matrix. There are some contacted areas, so the piece is not undamaged, but it's still a nice showy bigger specimen of this classic material from one of the oldest mining areas in the world, where metals have been recovered for at least 5,000 years.