Smithsonite

specimen number:
2262236

location:
Antler Mine, Mohave County, Arizona, USA

description:
Beautiful iridescent botryoidal crystallized smithsonite across most sides of matrix. In good condition. The specimen comes with a previous data card gives an acquisition date in 1962.

The Antler mine, situated on the western slopes of the Hualapai Mountains within the Hualapai Mining District of Mohave County, Arizona, is a historic base-metal producer celebrated for its highly unusual secondary zinc and copper mineralization, including scarce specimens of smithsonite. Geologically, the deposit is classified as a Proterozoic volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit hosted within deeply metamorphosed amphibolite and quartz-biotite schists. The primary stratabound ore body consists of a steeply dipping, tabular lens heavily enriched in massive zinc and copper sulfides, where extensive post-depositional supergene weathering within the upper oxidized zone allowed zinc-rich solutions to alter the primary sphalerite ore. This geochemical process precipitated zinc carbonate, or smithsonite, which typically occurs as highly uncommon, lustrous botryoidal crusts, mamillary aggregates, and zinc-rich coatings displaying shades of greenish-brown, white, or occasionally iridescent peacock-blue to magenta directly over the massive sulfide matrix. Historically, the deposit was first discovered in 1879 and patented as a mining claim in 1894, with underground development and drift mining officially starting in 1916. The mine experienced its most intensive phase of commercial zinc and copper extraction under corporate operators between 1943 and 1954, followed by sporadic operations until its final year of commercial production in 1970, when all corporate extraction ceased.

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