Szenicsite

Item Description

Here we have a wonderful small cabinet sized specimen of Szenicsite, an incredibly rare copper hydroxy molybdate species, named after Terry and Marissa Szenics, US mineral dealers and collectors who first discovered the material. For a time the only known locality for the species was the type locality, the Jardinera No. 1 Mine in the Atacama Desert of Chile, but recent analysis via Raman spectroscopy has confirmed the species from Carlota Mine in Arizona. With that said, the best and most celebrated specimens are still those from the Jardinera No. 1 Mine. This piece is filled with good sized, platy green crystals of this very rare mineral measuring up to 1.5 cm on host rock matrix. A small amount of yellow-green colored Powellite (copper-bearing) can be seen on the piece as well, which fluoresces under SW UV light. If you collect specimens from the type locality, very rare species, or minerals named after people, don't less this one pass you by. One rarely has the opportunity to pick up a piece of this material, especially now since nothing is has come from the locality in years, and no more pieces will likely ever be found. From the collection of Vasco Trancoso, a medical doctor and prominent mineral collector from near Lisbon, Portugal (https://www.mindat.org/user-11954.html). He assembled his mineral collection over the course of 60 years, and built a fine worldwide display collection that we recently purchased. This piece is pictured on mindat.org at https://www.mindat.org/photo-187182.html