14
Malachite$4,500.00
Wire transfers available, to set up
Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia is right there at the top of the list of the world's most famous mineral producing localities. Tsumeb mine is the undoubted leader, but Broken Hill is right there amongst the leading candidates. As with Tsumeb, Broken Hill is famed for its phenomenal assemblage of supergene, or secondary, oxidation minerals. It has some real rarities and is the Type Locality for many exotic phosphate and arsenate species. However, we should not forget the wonderful copper carbonates it has produced too. This lovely cabinet specimen of Malachite presents the famous velvet-like lustre of dark green botryoidal Malachite from the Proprietary mine (Block 14) at Broken Hill. The reason for its detailed provenance to a specific deposit/mine is that it is from Milton Lavers' collection, he being a specialist on the mineralogy of these deposits and having collected there for many decades. Uniquely, the botryoidal Malachite mostly covers a Quartz-Spessartine-Goethite matrix - I am not aware of any other supergene copper deposit having manganese silicates within the orebody. Texturally too, the Malachite is super distinctive, displaying the concentric layered banding dramatically, possibly indicating water erosion or natural polishing whilst the Malachite was forming. A fine displayable classic from Broken Hill.
Comments
Known provenance
Species and Locality Wiki Pages
Collectors of Malachite
Malachite Sales Data
From
To
From
To
Loading sales data...
All Sales
Loading specimens...