Aurichalcite from Apex Mine, Utah, USA

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Sky-blue acicular crystallized aurichalcite across matrix with smithsonite. Interesting locality example for the species. The specimen comes with a previous label from the dealership Minerals Unlimited.Located in the Tutsagubet district of the Beaver Dam Mountains in Washington County, Utah, the Apex Mine is situated within heavily brecciated and faulted Paleozoic limestone and dolomite host rocks. The deposit features an extensive oxidized, iron-rich supergene zone containing secondary minerals like goethite, azurite, malachite, and plumbian jarosite. Discovered in the 1880s, the mine historically produced copper, silver, and lead before gaining worldwide fame in the 1980s as a primary source of strategic metals like germanium and gallium. For mineral collectors, the mine dump and oxidized zones have yielded distinctive micro-mineral specimens, particularly lead-bearing jarosite and colorful secondary copper and arsenic minerals.