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[Roger Warin]

Hello,
Following a lecture on phosphates from the Democratic Republic of Congo (Katanga) at our AGAB-Liege club, I rummaged through my drawers looking for cornétite and other phosphates.
I found two or three libethénites, but the rarest specimen I have is definitely a hopéite. It is an aggregate of several crystals on a matrix. It is about the size of a hazelnut.
In addition, the label on this specimen is outdated and its country of origin has disappeared!
Label: Broken Hill, Rhodesia.
Can you help me correct this origin? There can't be many deposits like this.
Hopeite is an orthorhombic zinc phosphate:
ZnZn(PO4)2.4H2O
I have described it on the AGAB website ( https://www.agab.be/ )
The type locality is in Belgium:
Altenberg mine, Kelmis, Liège, Wallonia, Belgium or “La Calamine” in French, about 40 km east of Liège.
The crystals from Kelmis (B) are clear and colorless. Their morphology is of high quality.

Rare

[Knut Eldjarn]