MIMETITE WITH WULFENITE

ABOUT THE SPECIMEN

A very interesting locality pieces by form and composition; yellow botryoidal mimetite formed in multiple vugs, associated with some small yet sharp blades of golden wulfenite. When I first saw this, I immediately thought it had to be from Mexico, and yet it's from the other side of the world! This specimen is largely in great condition, some minor contacting doesn't detract from what is, again, an unusual and still very nice looking piece.

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MORE INFO

Located approximately 24 km southeast of Chupanan, the Gowd Mine exploited zinc-lead mineralization formed as fault-controlled veinlets and pockets within marble or at marble-schist contacts. Operations ran from the early 1940s until the early 1980s when high extraction costs and unstable schist-hosted adits caused closure. Mimetite occurs as thick tabular crystals in bright lemon-yellow to orange colors, many doubly terminated, reaching up to 1 cm with exceptional luster. The August 2015 find produced particularly fine examples on white calcite matrix. Wulfenite appears as small tabular to thin platy crystals, typically under 1 cm, in orange-red hues occasionally associated with the mimetite. What makes Gowd significant within the Anarak district is its production of unusually well-crystallized mimetite; the region's lead-zinc deposits typically yield fine cerussite and secondary lead minerals, but Gowd's combination of arsenate-rich fluids created conditions favoring distinctive mimetite formation. Vanadinite also occurs, with secondary vanadinite microcrystals occasionally growing on mimetite crystal faces. The deposits belong to the broader Yazd-Anarak Metallogenic Belt, where numerous carbonate-hosted lead-zinc occurrences formed through basin-derived hydrothermal fluids. Specimens from Gowd remain relatively scarce compared to neighboring localities like Nakhlak and Chah Milleh.