Catalog Search Guide
You can search our catalog using different mineral attributes. For example, you can search by color such as green, yellow or purple, or by chemical elements such as uranium, calcium or iron, or by mineral groups such as phosphate, silicate or carbonate. You can also filter by crystal habit like crystal, geode or crystal on matrix, by specimen size such as thumbnail, small, medium or cabinet, and by features such as radioactive or fluorescent minerals.
Cuprian Adamite
Cuprian Adamite is the copper-rich variety of Adamite, a zinc arsenate hydroxide with the ideal formula Zn2(AsO4)(OH), belonging to the olivenite group within the adamite-olivenite series. When copper substitutes for zinc in the crystal lattice, the normally yellow to honey-colored adamite turns into vivid emerald-green, blue-green or turquoise crystals, the most prized color range among adamite collectors. Compositions that approach a 1:1 Zn:Cu ratio are today classified separately as the distinct species zincolivenite, and many older specimens historically labeled cuproadamite have since been re-examined and reassigned to that species — a nomenclature point serious collectors should know. Adamite forms as a secondary mineral in the oxidized zone of zinc-arsenic ore deposits, typically as wedge-tipped, glassy prismatic crystals or radiating fan-like sprays with a Mohs hardness of about 3.5 and specific gravity near 4.3–4.4.
The undisputed benchmark locality for Cuprian Adamite is the Ojuela Mine in Mapimí, Durango, Mexico, thought to have supplied the vast majority of the world's finest adamite specimens, with brilliant green crystals studding the classic red-brown limonite matrix alongside legrandite, calcite, rosasite, mimetite and conichalcite. A second, more exceptional source is the Tsumeb Mine in Namibia, where copper-enriched adamite occurs as gemmy emerald-green crystals in striking association with iridescent bornite, schultenite and smithsonite — rarer and smaller than Mexican material but highly regarded by connoisseurs. Adamite as a species was first described from the type locality of Chañarcillo, Atacama, Chile, and other historic occurrences with copper-bearing crystals include the ancient Lavrion district in Greece and Cap Garonne in France.
Collectors prize Cuprian Adamite for its saturated, almost electric green-to-blue color, its vitreous to adamantine luster, and its typically strong yellow-green to green fluorescence under ultraviolet light, a signature trait used to distinguish genuine material from imitations. The dramatic contrast between the bright green crystal druses and the iron-oxide matrix from Ojuela, or the rich sulfide backdrop at Tsumeb, makes these specimens some of the most photogenic and sought-after arsenate minerals in the hobby, valued equally for their aesthetics, their scientific interest as part of a well-studied solid-solution series, and their historic ties to two of the world's most celebrated mineral-producing mines.
