Mimetite, Ohbuki mine, Japan

Mineral Matters #355

This week’s Facebook Mineral of the Week Group’s selected theme is Japanese minerals.

Mimetite in Japanese is ミメット鉱 (mimetto-kō). The Ohbuki Mine is possibly part of the Mitsudate Mine. It is located in the northern part of Hinokage Town, Nishiusuki District, and was primarily mined for tin in skarn deposits until the 1970s.

In the oxidized zone of the deposit, other secondary minerals such as hemimorphite, otavite, anglesite, adamite, zincolivenite, beudantite, and scorodite have been found.

As an aside, I was asked to try out an image editing application, PaintShop Pro (there is a trial version). It has an image stacking facility as one of its options. I tried it out using the photos taken for the image below. The end result wasn’t bad, although it lacked a bit of contrast. But the processing speed was abysmal! I’ll be sticking with Helicon Focus!

Below: Mimetite, Ohbuki mine, Hinokage, Nishiusuki District, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. Width of view 6mm. Click on the image for a higher resolution version.