Pyromorphite

Pyromorphite from the Daoping Mine, Gongcheng County, Guilin, Guangxi, China, measuring 63 × 48 × 42 mm and weighing 128 grams. A good cluster from what has become one of the most celebrated Pyromorphite localities in the world.

Pyromorphite is lead chlorophosphate, Pb5(PO4)3Cl, hexagonal, and it classically forms as barrel-shaped or elongated hexagonal crystals in shades of green, yellow-green or occasionally brown, growing in the oxidised zone of lead deposits where phosphate-bearing groundwater reacts with weathering Galena. Since becoming known to the international market in the early 2000s, the Daoping Mine has set the benchmark for the species, its crystals' colour saturation and habit now the standard against which Pyromorphite from other localities, including the historic European sources, tends to be judged.

A well-formed Daoping cluster like this is as close to a textbook Pyromorphite as the hobby now has, and material of this quality has driven renewed collector interest in the species generally. This piece is from the David Vince Collection.