PYROMORPHITE

A beautiful and highly unusual Pyromorphite from the Cagliari Province in Sardinia, Italy.  Partial dissolution of a botryoidal limonitic carbonate has formed an interconnected, highly porous and vuggy, shell-like matrix which is completely infilled with lustrous deep apple-green Pyromorphite in bubbly, millimetre-scale, botryoidal druses.  The vugs on the underside of the specimen are almost equally well lined, but here the Pyromorphite is a lighter leafy to yellow-green.  As noted, the locality has only been recorded as Cagliari Province, but judging by very similar specimens, it is likely to originate from the S'Ortu Becciu mine at Donori.  This a very different habit and colour of Pyromorphite for anyone adding to a collection of this fascinating species.