Smithsonite after Calcite

specimen number:
2063558

location:
Level 8, San Antonio Mine, Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, Mexico

description:
Brownish yellow crystallized smithsonite replacing now gone but still sharply formed scalenohedral crystals of calcite to 1.8 cm in height, these covering the top of matrix. In great condition. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

Located in the historic East Camp of the Santa Eulalia mining district in Chihuahua, Mexico, the San Antonio Mine is renowned for its complex carbonate replacement ore bodies hosted in extensive Cretaceous limestone sequences. Centuries of intensive underground extraction targeting rich lead and silver deposits exposed deep oxidation zones where circulating metal-bearing solutions transformed primary minerals into diverse secondary species. Level 8 of the mine became particularly famous among mineral collectors for producing exceptional specimens of smithsonite after scalenohedral calcite. In these remarkable pseudomorphs and epimorphs, zinc-rich solutions coated or completely replaced sharp original dogtooth calcite crystals, preserving the distinct rhombohedral and scalenohedral forms while finishing them in translucent blue-green, tan, or brown botryoidal coatings and hollow crystal shells.

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