Libethenite

Unknown Owner

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This is a very rare specimen of this rare copper phosphate species from a long removed locality. The Live Oak pit was an open pit mine which worked the Live Oak copper-bearing vein but this area has long since been swallowed up by the larger Inspiration mine at Miami, Gila County, Arizona, USA. Specimens of Libethenite from there are rarely seen, and this large miniature specimen features not only excellent glossy microcrystals of Libethenite, but a couple of other secondary species too. Associated with the Libethenite are small green acicular 'puffball' sprays of what is most likely Malachite, and the matrix upon which this and the Libethenite sits is a blue-grey phase that could be Chrysocolla, or maybe something more unusual.