Rocksday

Zincite

Zinc oxide; natural red zincite is rare, but bright crystals grow as accidental byproducts in smelters.

Zincite specimen
Photo: cobalt123, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify zincite

  • Deep red-orange grains in calcite (natural).
  • Clear orange, yellow or green hexagonal prisms (smelter-grown).
  • Orange-yellow streak.

Often confused with

Where it's found

  • Franklin, New Jersey
  • Polish zinc smelters (synthetic)

Uses

Zinc ore and collector specimens.

Rock tumbling

Not suitable for tumbling.

Did you know?

Most colorful zincite sold today formed inside Polish zinc-smelter chimneys.

Think you could spot it from a blurry close-up?

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