Chrysocolla

$450.00

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This attractive turquoise-blue small cabinet-sized specimen from the Tenke-Fungurume area in the Kolwezi mining district, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is from a remarkable find which challenges ones geochemical knowledge. Its very striking colour comes from Chrysocolla, an amorphous copper silicate not known for producing crystals but which is very adept at replacing, or pseudomorphing, the shape of other minerals' crystals. Here, Chrysocolla has coated (epimorphed) and replaced (pseudomorphed) bladed crystals of Malachite. The Malachite had itself already pseudomorphed Azurite which formed the shape of the bladed crystals. Later, a layer of finely crystallized colourless Quartz encapsulated the Chrysocolla, protecting it from abrasion, and another generation of Malachite formed as scattered crystals on the surface. A wonderfully complex and strikingly beautiful specimen.