Name: Kolwezite & Malachite ps. Dolomite on Malachite/Chrysocolla ps. Baryte
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 3750 USD
Availability: InStock

Kolwezite & Malachite ps. Dolomite on Malachite/Chrysocolla ps. Baryte

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Sharp green crystals of blocky cubist malachite (more on this in a bit) seem to contrast atop powder blue chrysocolla on this beautiful but complicated specimen that tells a long story of how these copper deposits form, and minerals must form and then quickly alter to other species even as they are forming. It is a complicated piece with pseudomorphs upon pseudomorphs. This is one of the largest fine display pieces of this pocket, with exceptional aesthetics; and seem unique in the mineral world compared to any previous finds. These metallic dark green crystals that seem like primary malachite are to 1.1 cm, and in clusters to 5.5 cm. However, they are NOT malachite - not entirely! They are, rather, mixed malachite-kolwezite by analysis, and replacements of an earlier dolomite crystal phase. A large group of specimens went out to Europe labelled as "malachite on chrysocolla pseudomorphs" and were then analysed extensively by dealer Jordi Fabre (shortly before he retired and sold us a large part of this group of them in 2023). It became clear that this was much more interesting! In his own words: New at Sainte-Marie 2023 were specimens that represent, apart from its evident aesthetics and its world novelty, a complete treatise on mineralogy. The complicated sequence of events that produced these specimens is thought to have started with a cobalt-bearing Dolomite (which has since disappeared during the process), followed by successive substitutions in which more copper was added, leaving as a final result Kolwezite-Malachite in pseudomorphic shapes after crystals of the initial cobalt-bearing Dolomite. All of this complexity atop is perched upon a gorgeous carpet of blue: powder blue Chrysocolla pseudomorphs after Baryte, with a stage of Malachite growth, also pseudomorphic after Baryte. The discovery of this morphological and chemical complexity was published in the French magazine Le Règne Minéral (in January 2024). The Tenke mine was certainly the new locality for interesting copper minerals in 2020-2023, in the mineral collecting world, as it was producing display-quality specimens of various beautiful secondary copper and cobalt minerals, such as malachite, chrysocolla, and interesting pseudomorphs of these species with quartz and other minerals.