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  • Multiple honey-yellow ettringite crystals projecting from a dark, nearly black manganese-rich matrix. The hexagonal crystals vary in size and are arranged in an eye-catching three-dimensional pattern against the contrasting dark background, with a few showing minor damage.
  • Multiple honey-yellow ettringite crystals projecting from a dark, nearly black manganese-rich matrix. The hexagonal crystals vary in size and are arranged in an eye-catching three-dimensional pattern against the contrasting dark background, with a few showing minor damage.
  • Multiple honey-yellow ettringite crystals projecting from a dark, nearly black manganese-rich matrix. The hexagonal crystals vary in size and are arranged in an eye-catching three-dimensional pattern against the contrasting dark background, with a few showing minor damage.
  • Multiple honey-yellow ettringite crystals projecting from a dark, nearly black manganese-rich matrix. The hexagonal crystals vary in size and are arranged in an eye-catching three-dimensional pattern against the contrasting dark background, with a few showing minor damage.

ETTRINGITE

Wessels Mine, Hotazel, John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality, Northern Cape, South Africa
4 x 2.6 x 2.4 cm
$200.00
$200.00
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ABOUT THE SPECIMEN

Attractive display of rich yellow ettringite popping out of dark manganese-bearing matrix. Most of the crystals are pristine though we’ve adjusted the price to reflect a couple of damaged crystals. The contrast of color and the three-dimensional arrangement certainly make for an attention grabber.

 

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MORE INFO

Wessels is the pre-eminent locality within the Kalahari Manganese Field, the largest land-based manganese deposit on earth hosted in Paleoproterozoic Hotazel Formation banded ironstone - fault-controlled hydrothermal alteration of the primary manganese ore, documented by Beukes, Burger, and Gutzmer (1995), drove the exceptional secondary mineralization responsible for the district's 28 type species, of which Wessels alone produced half. Ettringite belongs to the supergroup of highly hydrated calcium sulfate minerals that crystallized within this hydrothermal alteration zone, precipitating as hexagonal prismatic crystals in vivid lemon-yellow on calcite or hausmannite matrix - the color is intrinsic to the calcium-aluminum sulfate structure rather than a trace chromophore. Confirmed ettringite crystals to 4–5 mm on matrix are documented, with the finest examples characterized by parallel growth groups with complete terminations. The mine remains active under South32 and intermittently produces new material, though collector access is tightly controlled.