Chrysocolla on Quartz

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Otherworldly, or alien, is perhaps a good way of describing this exceptionally unusual form of Chrysocolla from the remote and mysterious Tentadora mine in Huancano District, Pisco Province, Ica, Peru where it was reportedly mined in 2024. The Chrysocolla forms almost complete glossy turquoise-blue globules, 4 to 5 mm in diameter, scattered and in some areas coalesced upon the surface of a 12 cm tall, yet stocky, Quartz crystal. Other rounded forms in darker blue and green add wonderful contrast to the surface too. This is a breathtakingly unusual form of Chrysocolla and combines its naturally attractive, eye-catching colour, with a fascinating textural form. I, along with pretty much everyone else who has seen this material, have never seen anything quite like it before. A fragment of a divergent colourless to white Quartz crystal splaying off at the base of the specimen provides a nice context to what lies beneath the larger copper-silicate encapsulated crystal.