Smithsonite essentially covers a three-dimensional piece of matrix on this colorful and multi-layered specimen from the famed Refugio Mine. This mine produced a variety of intensely colored Smithsonites during its 50 years of sporadic production (now, over with). Although the pinks and hot pinks are the most classic, the various shades of green and blue have their own appeal and actually are more rare. This is a rich, saturated, beautifully translucent medium green-blue color and displays a lovely pearlescent luster on all of the botryoids. The Choix Smithsonites tend to have a unique subsurface iridescence to them and a better luster, at their best as you see here, than Kelly Mine, New Mexico pieces. For these reasons, I consider the Choix greens and blues consistently underappreciated and undervalued, as they are more blue and more rare than their cousins to the north in New Mexico.