PYROMORPHITE

ABOUT THE SPECIMEN

This exquisite pyromorphite displays phenomenal color and luster, with larger, doubly-terminated crystals present. Many of the barrel-shaped crystals are hoppered, all shooting out in different directions. Some of the crystals are grown with both ends standing free from the cluster, one hoppered and the other pointed. From the Daoping Mine in Guilin, China, considered by many to be the best locale in the world for pyromorphite, impact pieces with color as rich as this are highly prized. Were it not for a ding on the end of one of the pyro’s, this piece would be going for much more. This comes from a recently discovered pocket of extravagant quality, the likes of which are rarely unearthed.

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The Daoping deposit is a hydrothermal Pb-Zn system hosted in Devonian Wuzhishan Formation limestone, sandstone, and shale intruded by granite and lamprophyre dykes in the karst terrain south of Guilin - a setting in which open cavity development within the carbonate host rock directly enabled the exceptional crystal growth documented here. Pyromorphite formed secondarily in the oxidized lead zone, with green coloration driven by interactions between lead, phosphate, and chloride ions in the hexagonal crystal structure rather than any discrete trace chromophore. Discoveries beginning in 1999, formally documented by Liu and Ottens in the Mineralogical Record (2005), produced hexagonal prisms and barrel-shaped crystals reaching several centimeters - extraordinary for the species - in colors spanning pale yellow-green through saturated apple-green to dark forest-green, with occasional yellow-orange. The "Apple Green Pocket" of 2003–2004 yielded some of the most coveted cabinet-scale material, with translucent prisms to 2 cm on cerussite matrix and incipient hopper growth at terminations. Since the Daoping and Yangshuo mines connected underground in 2003, precise attribution of later material between the two operations is genuinely ambiguous. The finest early-find pieces have been absorbed steadily into permanent collections, and nothing from subsequent production has matched the 2003–2004 benchmark.