Adamite

Adamite from the Kamariza Mine, Agios Konstantinos, Attica, Greece, measuring 66 × 42 × 33 mm and weighing 125 grams. A good example of one of the signature secondary minerals from the ancient Lavrion mining district.

Adamite is zinc arsenate hydroxide, Zn2(AsO4)(OH), usually forming as sprays or crusts of small, glassy, yellow-green to green crystals. The Lavrion district, worked for silver and lead since antiquity and intensively again from the nineteenth century, developed an exceptionally varied oxidised zone over its primary sulfide ore, and Kamariza is one of the mines within that district best known for producing fine Adamite alongside Olivenite, Smithsonite and a long list of other secondary arsenates and sulfates.

Lavrion's secondary minerals are prized as much for the district's extraordinary diversity of species as for any single showy specimen, and Adamite is one of the names most associated with that reputation. This piece carries a double provenance, the David Vince Collection and the Ruth Coulsell Collection.