Vauquelinite with Crocoite

specimen number:
2354120

location:
Berezovsk, Beryozovsky, Sverdlovsk, Russia

description:
Greenish black prismatic crystals of vauquelinite to 0.1 cm in size rich across the top of matrix with minor crocoite. Minor cerussite present. Excellent example for the species from this classic Russian locality. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Eric Laskowski.

Located in the Sverdlovsk Oblast of the Central Ural Mountains, the Berezovsk deposit is centered on gold-bearing quartz veins that cut through granite-porphyry dikes (known locally as beresite) intruded into metamorphic host rocks. Mining at Berezovsk began in 1745 after the discovery of native gold, establishing it as Russia's oldest active gold mining district and a historical center for mineral exploration. The site gained international fame as the type locality for several rare secondary lead-bearing minerals formed by the oxidation of galena and primary sulfides in the upper oxidized zone of the veins. Among these discoveries was vauquelinite, a rare lead copper chromate phosphate that forms green to dark brown crystal crusts and botryoidal masses, named in honor of the French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin. Through centuries of continuous mining, Berezovsk has supplied museums and private collections worldwide with notable historical specimens of vauquelinite and associated minerals like crocoite.

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