Covellite - Kosaka mine, Akita Prefecture, Japan

Covellite

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Rich indigo-blue to iridescent red-purple Covellite forms a 'Z' shaped crystalline area displaying characteristic platy hexagonal crystals to 4 mm. This rare specimen is from Kosaka mine, Akita Prefecture in the Tohoku Region of Honshu Island, Japan and is accompanied with a very early Max Philipp Geipel label (#456) . The Covellite, a relatively rare copper sulphide, forms as small platy crystals covering granular Pyrite. Kosaka mine worked a massive copper-lead-zinc sulphide deposit which was discovered in 1861. Mining operations ran for ninety one years, between 1884 and 1974.