Mineral ID

Kiley320

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May 23, 2018
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So, I found this specimen at a pawn shop. I asked the owner if he knew what it was and he did not nor did the actual seller. It had a price tag of $99 and with how lovely it was I bought it. I asked a few ID pages on Facebook but got a plethora of varying answers including Hemimorphite, chrysocolla with quartz druzy, Aurichalite, Rosasite and Smithsonite. I’m hoping you guys can help me with getting to the bottom of what this specimen is. The reddish colored rock is very crumbly and soft. It will leave a red color behind. Thank you all in advance!

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I would say it's aurichalcite due to the crystal habit. Hemimorphite tends to form acicular or botryoidal formations to my knowledge. It appears to be a zinc limonite matrix, so it could be either one of those due to the origin from the matrix.

Aurichalcite has a hardness of 2, so you should be able to scratch it with your fingernail. Hemimorphite is 4-5 so a fingernail won't scratch it.

It's definitely not chrysocolla/gem silica. Could be smithsonite but the structure doesn't look right for it (hardness same as hemimorphite). Rosasite is another possibility, but I'm not too familiar with it except the hardness is about 4.
 

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If you asked on several ID sites online, perhaps take the hint and let someone look at it in person.
Mind you, even a qualified guess is still a guess.
 

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