Metatorbernite

specimen number:
2062974

location:
Le Limouzat Mine, Les Bois-Noirs, Saint-Priest-la-Prugne, Roanne, Loire, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, France

description:
Lustrous platy green crystals of metatorbernite to 0.3 cm in size on matrix. In good condition. Nice reference quality example for the species and locality. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark. This label notes he received the piece via a trade with the School of Mines in Paris, France.

The Le Limouzat Mine, situated within the Bois-Noirs massif of the Forez mountains in France, is hosted in Hercynian granitic and metamorphic terrains where hydrothermal veins localized significant uranium mineralization. Discovered in the early 1950s, the deposit became one of France's major historical underground uranium producers until operations ceased near the end of the twentieth century, followed by extensive environmental remediation and monitoring of the site. Mineralogically, the oxidation zones of these hydrothermal veins yielded notable secondary uranium species, prominently featuring attractive emerald-green tabular crystals of metatorbernite formed through the alteration of primary uranium-bearing ores in contact with phosphate-rich solutions.

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