Name: Copper with Chrysocolla
Brand: The Arkenstone
Price: 14500 USD
Availability: InStock

Copper with Chrysocolla

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Dramatic and uncommon in such quality, this sharp copper crystal is from the well-known traprock basalts of New Jersey's Chimney Rock Quarry. The four, unusually robust copper crystals splay in two directions, creating a sculptural and 3-dimensional look of a magnitude where normally you would look at it and immediately assign it to a Michigan location; but we know it came from an old family collection in New Jersey, and it came with others of lesser stature at the time. This was the best single formed crystal of the lot at the time we obtained the collection, and is incredibly significant for an East Coast copper - or any copper, for that matter. The largest of the copper crystals is a significant 3 cm in size, and the rich, metallic luster and brownish-copper color provide a vivid contrast with minute amounts of embedded, blue chrysocolla. The interplay of colors and forms creates an eye-catching aesthetic. Most people think the New Jersey traprocks as producing Zeolites, prehnite, and calcite, but the Chimney Rock Quarry has clearly produced excellent specimens of native copper, as well. The quarry was excavated on top of the old Chimney Rock Copper Mine and its copper minerals have been known for many years. Although the copper minerals occur in the veins that transect the basalt, most of the copper is found in the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic (225 to 190 million years ago) Passaic Formation sediments immediately beneath the basalt. (MINDAT). An outstanding, crystallized copper, made even more rare for this locality by the intriguing chrysocolla (which also helps prove that it is not from Michigan, as a bonus).