Zippeite

Specimen Origin: Apex Mine (Lander County, Nevada, USA)

The Apex Mine (also known as the Rundberg or Early Day Mine) in the Reese River Mining District of Lander County, Nevada, was developed for uranium beginning in the early 1950s and worked mainly through the 1960s. Though production was modest, the locality became noted for a diverse suite of secondary uranium minerals in fractures and mine workings. Zippeite from Apex forms bright canary- to orange-yellow efflorescences and crusts, commonly with uranopilite, natrozippeite, magnesiozippeite, meta-autunite, and rutherfordine, and is prized for its color and illustrative post-mining origin.

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Zippeite

Zippeite is a hydrous uranyl sulfate of the zippeite group, typically potassium-dominant, that forms vivid yellow to orange coatings, scaly crusts, or fibrous efflorescences. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, is very soft (about Mohs 2), strongly radioactive, and is fragile and water-sensitive; some specimens fluoresce yellow under UV light. The mineral develops in the oxidized zone of uranium deposits, often as a late, post-mining alteration of uraninite and sulfides, and commonly occurs with related members such as natrozippeite and magnesiozippeite.