Olivenite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

The look and feel of this Cornish Olivenite specimen give the impression of significant age, perhaps far older than even the old handwritten Francis Henry Butler (1849-1935) label which accompanies it. The type of crystallization seen with this Olivenite is quite distinctive too, forming delicate sprays of silky acicular crystals within cavities in intensely oxidized Chalcopyrite-bearing ore. This rusty gossan also contains a tiny patch of Chalcophyllite on the back. Recorded by Butler as from "St. Day United mines" that, during his lifetime, encompassed a very broad tract of land including Poldice mine (which itself included Wheal Gorland) and Carharrack. If I was a betting man - and I am not - I would say that it looks most like older specimens from the Carharrack mine. Ex Martin Kershaw Collection, no. 584.