Dioptase with Mimetite

Item Description

This piece was mined in January of 2019. I will note that these specimens were originally reported as coming from the Mpita Mine, but they are in fact from Ntola. Although Dioptase is largely beloved by dealers and collectors, the one problem with the species is that there aren't too many world localities that produce excellent specimens. These new piece are honestly a bit different from most of the pieces that we've handled from this locality in the past from Republic of the Congo. Instead of large individual crystals, you can see smaller beautiful clusters of Dioptase measuring up to 3 mm on matrix. The color of the crystals shows that classic emerald green hue, and they are highly lustrous and gemmy showing textbook prismatic trigonal form, but what really sets them off is the many small brilliant orange-yellow crystals of Mimetite (confirmed by analysis) underneath. We took some micro photos with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate the quality of the little Mimetite and you can see that they are actually pyramidal in habit, which is not common in our experience. The contrast between the Dioptase and the Mimetites is wonderful. PLEASE NOTE: We've listed some of these pieces in the past as Dioptase with WULFENITE, which was also confirmed by analysis, and it appears that both species are present at this locality. The piece is in very good shape and it's a lot fun to view under the microscope, and I do believe there are actually some tiny golden-orange colored pyramidal crystals that are actually WULFENITE, so it appears that BOTH Mimetite and Wulfenite are present on the same specimen. We all know that the prices for Tsumeb Dioptase specimens are on the rise, but you can pick up this attractive "Tsumeb-esque" specimen for a great price, with an association that is rarely seen around the world.