Demesmaekerite with Malachite

Unknown Owner

Rare yellow green crystals to 0.2 cm in size on matrix with malachite.The Musonoi Pit near Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is part of the Central African Copperbelt, one of the richest copper and cobalt mining regions in the world. Mining in the area developed during the 20th century with large scale open pit operations extracting copper and cobalt from sediment hosted deposits. The pit exposed extensive oxidized zones that produced a wide variety of secondary minerals. Musonoi has become well known among collectors for colorful and diverse mineral specimens formed during oxidation.Demesmaekerite is a rare uranium copper selenite mineral that occurs in the oxidized zones of copper deposits, especially in the Katanga region. It typically forms as small yellow to orange crystals or crusts and is associated with other uranium and copper minerals. The mineral was first described from the Congo.