Name: Chrysocolla after Malachite, with Quartz & Malachite
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 7500 USD
Availability: InStock

Chrysocolla after Malachite, with Quartz & Malachite

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Every now and then, a single new find surprises the mineral world with something completely different. I recall my reaction when these first surfaced in around 2019, and I saw them for the first time. I was stunned by the combination of color and beauty, nevermind the ridiculously mind-boggling complexity of the mineralogy that formed them. Shocking color and sparkle make this single discovery one of our overall all-time-favorite beautiful finds in the mineral world. The piece consists of layer upon layer of minerals. From the inside out, we have a solid core of chrysocolla, on which seems to have grown malachite crystals. Those malachites, even as they formed in the deep depth of the earth under temperature and pressure, were quickly changed into chrysocolla as well, creating elongated chrysocolla crystals in the shape of the original malachites (pseudomorphs). Some of the crystals are open so that you can look inside and you can see color zoning in the blue, showing this was a process involving multiple stages of chemistry and change. Atop those formed a thin layer of sparkling quartz druse that just draped over everything in the pockets in the few pockets of a small zone of production that gave us these specimens. Sometime alter, more copper-rich fluid came into the open pockets and tiny sparkling microcrystals of malachite were deposited atop the existing quartz on chrysocolla. The result is a specimen of powder blue chrysocolla of high beauty, that looks like it was dipped in sugary syrup and left to dry. It simply glows in the light. Atop that, another layer of clear quartz came. This specimen consists of a compilation of stories that show complex conditions at the time it was formed, with minerals rapidly growing and changing into one another even as they grew. Although the area continues to produce, each year shows different - and generally unusual - production. We have bought all we could of the specimens, like this, that showed strong color and quality aesthetics. None have been available in years, now.