FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Barry Vincent]

During one of my favorite pastimes (surfing Ebay) I came across what is claimed to be Hydrozincite from China. It's one of the missing species in my collection and I'm thinking of buying such a specimen from a dealer who displays a number of lovely specimens of this mineral. However, they look to be a little too good to be genuine. They also offer free postage. However, my baloney antennae is twitching. These specimens may not be composed of the correct chemical formula but are made of some other chemical. What's the consensus of opinion concerning these ? They look so nice and white, solid and showy. I read in the literature that real Hydrozincite is mostly found as a coating or layer on matrix.

[Jordi Fabre]

Most of them results to be Calcite-Aragonite, but of course I can't guarantee it concerning a specimen that I have not even seen... ;-)

You can check: https://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,6,191162,192948

[Barry Vincent]

Jordi. Thank you for the quick response to my inquiry. I checked out that link and the consensus there was that it's not Hydrozincite, but either Aragonite or Calcite with perhaps a trace of Hydrozincite on the surface. It was also suggested that these specimens have been taken from cave formations.

[Barry Vincent]

Jordi. Here is a picture of one of those suspicious Chinese 'Hydrozincites' for you to look at.
You can of course delete this image after you have seen it as this is not one of my own photographs as I've taken it from one of the e-bay entries.
Oops , Sorry, I seemed to have successfully downloaded the same image twice :(
How do I delete the second one ?

[Jordi Fabre]

I deleted both images. You can't download external images without author's permission.

All is said in this topic Barry, you have all necessary info in the Mindat's thread.