Zincolivenite (formerly Cuprian Adamite)

Item Description

A beautiful and fine quality display specimen of this wonderful material from Tsumeb. This wonderful and showy cabinet features bright, very sharp, HIGHLY lustrous, well-formed crystals of a beautiful blue-green Zinolivenite (originally labeled Cuprian Adamite) measuring up to 5 mm covering nearly every side of the underlying matrix. In good light, the amazingly reflective faces reflect the light in a way that is rarely seen for the species. Nearly every crystal is completely undamaged, I can see one bruise on the back side (not visible when the piece is displayed) but other than that, the specimens is in superb condition. An excellent and highly desired specimen from what many collectors consider to be the most significant mineral locality in the world. Valued by the previous dealer at $3,500.  PLEASE NOTE:  According to recent science: many specimens of from Tsumeb that have been labeled as "Cuprian Adamite" are in fact Zincolivenite.  The following quote we found online details this information thusly:  " A probable majority of "cuproadamites", strictly speaking, belong to the more recently defined species zincolivenite (Chukanov et al., 2007), defined as having a Zn:Cu ratio of less than 75:25, but greater than 25:75. Some of Tsumeb's very rare and extremely rare arsenates occur in association with zincolivenite / "cuproadamite"".  Additionally, there a video is available on YouTube from Blue Cap Productions from 2019 featuring Malcolm Southwood, Martin Stevko and Paul Carr which details more about this material (www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qgo9po-bT8).  Lastly, there is an entry on mindat.org which states ""Cuprian Adamite" is primarily Zincolivenite or close to end-member Adamite".  With that said, we have not had this specimen analyzed to determine its true identity, but based upon the information available, we feel comfortable leaving it as Zincolivenite.  If anybody has additional information that they can contribute to this listing, please let us know.