Kinoite

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This is one of the largest and richest examples of this classic old Arizona material which we have yet had and handled. The Christmas Mine has produced, literally, best of species - but this was in the 1960s into the 1970s, now long gone. Most material is a pale pastel blue, or scattered druse of sparkle on a clunky matrix. Here, we have solid coverage and the most intense saturation possible for the species, such that the piece looks like candy blue sugar spilled on it - visible from across the room for the sheer color saturation. It has an incredibly rich carpet of tiny, sparkling crystals of the rare copper mineral kinoite, completely covering the display face. Small white reflections you see are not damage - they are 1-2 mm apophyllite crystals, reflective of the light. Interestingly, although this location produced the best specimens, it was initially discovered as a new species from a drill core recovered in a totally different Arizona mine which produced negligible specimens in the end.