Vauquelinite with Crocoite

specimen number:
2354049

location:
Berezovsk, Beryozovsky, Sverdlovsk, Russia

description:
Sparkling black micro crystalline vauquelinite across the top of matrix with orange red crystalline crocoite. Good old time reference example for this Russian classic, the specimen comes with two previous labels from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

The Berezovsk deposit (or Beryozovsky deposit) near Yekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk Oblast of Russia is a famous, historically significant mining district consisting of gold-bearing quartz veins hosted in granitoid intrusions and surrounding metamorphic rocks. Following the initial discovery of gold in 1745, Berezovsk became the cradle of Russian gold mining and quickly earned international fame among mineralogists for its rich oxidized hydrothermal ore zones. It serves as the type locality for vauquelinite, a rare secondary copper lead chromate phosphate mineral that was first described from the region in 1818 and named after the French chemist Louis Vauquelin. Valued highly by collectors, vauquelinite typically forms olive-green to dark brown or black crystalline aggregates and crusts, often found closely associated with other famous regional species like crocoite and pyromorphite.

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