Adamita
Adamita is a mineral with formula Zn₂AsO₄(OH), in the Arseniatos group. This specimen comes from Mina Ojuela, Mapimí, Durango, México and joined the Terrium collection in 2026.
Description
A dominant lemon-yellow main crystal with exceptional crystallisation, set in a limonite cavity with a microbotryoidal lining speckled with blue-metallic iridescent goethite. Under magnification, no contacts or detachment are observed. On the reverse, a small additional crystal is present.
About Adamita
A secondary mineral formed by oxidation, this zinc hydroxyarsenate from Mina Ojuela typically shows two distinguishing features: lemon-yellow colour (adamite is usually colourless) and strong fluorescence due to uranyl traces. Adamite is relatively common and inexpensive when lacking well-developed crystals. Pieces of this calibre are very difficult to find. Still finer ones are few and often priced for other markets.
About the locality
Mina Ojuela, at Mapimí, is one of the world's best-known localities for secondary zinc and arsenic minerals. It has produced some of the most famous adamite and cuprian adamite ever found, along with mimetite and hemimorphite also highly regarded in the mineral-collecting world. At its mining peak, the complex was linked to the town by a spectacular, if spartan, suspension bridge built in 1898 by the same company as the Brooklyn Bridge. A few kilometres away lies the legendary "Zone of Silence", a place wrapped in legends about radio anomalies and various meteorites; this layer of mystical-esoteric folklore, together with the mine's exceptional crystals, has made Mina Ojuela a site where major mineralogy meets the desert imaginary.
Technical data
- Catalogue No.
- 0406
- Composition
- Zn₂AsO₄(OH)
- Name
- Adamita
- Group
- Arseniatos
- Category
- Lucimera
- Matrix
- limonita
- Associations
- Goethita
- Mine
- Mina Ojuela
- District / Municipality
- Mapimí
- Region
- Durango
- Country
- México
- Size (cm)
- 6 x 4.5 x 4.5
- Weight
- 150 g
- Acquired
- 2026
- Ex-collection
- Jesús Paterna
- Etymology
- Although it shares a lexical root with "diamond" via the Greek "adamas", this is mere coincidence. For a mineral of hardness 3.5 the name would be ironic; the reality is more functional. An eponym like many others, it honours Gilbert-Joseph Adam, who brought the specimens from Chañarcillo, Chile, its type locality.
- Quality
- Muy buena
- Value trend
- Al alza
Related specimens
- Abernathyita — España
- Abernathyita — España
- Abernathyita — España
- Adamita — México
- Adamita — México
- Adamita — México
- Adamita (Cuprífera) — Grecia
- Adamita — México