Malachite on Azurite

Unknown Owner

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I was completely floored to see this piece labeled as Morenci, and assumed it to be an error. However, on consulting with Arizona specialist and collector Les Presmyk (who the also became a partner in the collection, I need to admit), I was told the following: On Christmas Eve, this zone was discovered by one of the collectors working for Southwest Mineral Associates at the Morenci mine in Arizona. Anxious to get home to be with family on Christmas, four specimens were recovered with the expectation that he would be back in two days to finish collecting the zone. Unfortunately, mining of the orebody had continued unabated through the holiday and the zone was no longer there. This is the largest of the four specimens and until this collection was purchased, Les Presmyk thought there were in fact only three specimens - this one had "gotten away" and not been spoken of. The quality and aethetics of this pocket are unique due to the hard botryoidal malachite and the contrasting azurite strategically placed to accent the malachite. The malachite looks buffed, but it is entirely natural. This is the finest known ecxample of this type from Morenci, and would by most people be confused for a Bisbee piece. The difference is in the luster (this is more lustrous than similarly formed Bisbee malachite) and in the subtle matrix association...but also if it were from Bisbee the price would be over $50,000 because of the relative premium attached to specimens from that mine. In other words, this is a MAJOR US specimen, that happens also to be a beautiful cabinet piece.