Home > Mexico IV Ojuela II – January 19 > MS1752 Smithsonite
Smithsonite - Sold
- Mina Ojuela
- Mapimí
- Durango
- Mexico
- 3.9 × 2.9 × 2.4 cm – Thumbnail specimen (fits into a 2.5 cm cube)
Smithsonite is zinc carbonate and a member of the calcite group. François Sulpice Beudant (1787-1850) dubbed this mineral smithsonite in his seminal 1832 Traité Élémentaire de Minéralogie. The mineral name honors James Smithson (1765?-1829), an Englishman who never visited the United States, but nevertheless founded the Smithsonian Institution with a gift of his mineral collection and cash.
Smithsonite here forms a 2.5 cm wide radiating globule on contrasting dark limonite matrix. Smithsonite is not typically so well developed at Ojuela.