Phosgenite

specimen number:
2063645

location:
Monteponi Mine, Iglesias, South Sardinia, Sardinia, Italy

description:
An excellent Sardinian classic, this a grouping of blocky dark smoky lustrous slightly translucent phosgenite crystals on a small amount of attached matrix. Very slight damage on the backside of the piece, this still in good condition. The crystal grouping is double terminated. The specimen comes with two previous labels, one from Ray DeMark, and the other from the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum.

The Monteponi Mine near Iglesias in southwestern Sardinia, Italy, is a historic lead and zinc mining district with roots stretching back to ancient times and major industrial expansion during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Set within Cambrian carbonate host rocks, the deposit formed through complex hydrothermal activity and subsequent weathering processes. Monteponi is world famous among mineral collectors for producing some of the finest crystals of phosgenite ever discovered. This rare lead mineral formed as secondary crystals in oxidized zones where chlorine-rich solutions interacted with primary lead ores, yielding brilliant, transparent, yellow to colorless prismatic crystals prized for their exceptional size, luster, and sharpness.

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