Hopeite (rare) (1972 Find)

Item Description

A classic and hard to find specimen of Hopeite (a hydrated zinc phosphate mineral) from a discovery in 1972 at the famous Kabwe Mine (Broken Hill Mine) in Zambia. This small cabinet piece is filled with dozens of very sharp, well-formed, tabular almost "sword"-shaped orthorhombic crystals measuring up to 5 mm. There are crystals covering the entire display side of the piece, and nearly all of them are undamaged. These pieces will never be mined again. The finest crystals of Hopeite come from this locality and they are seldom seen in today's market.
From the collection of Kurt Hefendehl (#2 SI), a well-known German collector all over Europe with worldwide contacts to dealers and collectors. He started collecting seriously at the age of 14 and his great and varied worldwide collection reached over 6000 pieces. He was very active mineralogically until shortly before his passing in 2020 at the age of 82. Considering his collection had a large number of pieces, it still had an unusually high standard of quality from most worldwide localities. He particularly specialized in all classics as well as minerals of the Black Forest, where he spent much time collecting. His Black Forest and German subcollections went to his good friend Wolfgang Wendel. We at The Arkenstone have the privilege of offering the remainder of this great worldwide collection through our various platforms.