PYROMORPHITE

A remarkable specimen composed entirely of a mass of intergrown, lime to leaf-green Pyromorphite crystals from the Broken Hill mine at Kabwe in Central Province, Zambia.  This mine is now more commonly referred to as the Kabwe mine, so avoiding confusion with Broken Hill in Australia.  The crystals are typically 5 mm long, but do exceed this and are bright and lustrous with a silky sheen.  The only matrix is a thin ribbon of dark grey rock crossing the base of the specimen, which was the contact point.  Pyromorphite from Kabwe is seldom seen, making this an even more unusual specimen, together with its colour and mass of elongated, curved barrel-shaped acicular crystals.  The specimen comes with two small photocopied sheets of paper which describe, in French, this specimen.  The locality is noted as “Broken Hill, Rhodésie”.  Rhodesia or, more accurately, Northern Rhodesia, which became Zambia in 1964.