Cuprite from Camborne-Redruth and St Day Mining District, Cornwall, England, UK

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Chalcotrichite, the acicular variety of Cuprite, is a favourite of many collectors and Cornwall certainly has its fair share of locations from which very fine examples have emanated. This small cabinet specimen (another which teeters as perhaps a large miniature) is known to be from the Camborne-Redruth-St. Day District although no specific mine is recorded. The dark chocolate brown to rusty gossan matrix, shot-through with blocks of dense, milky Quartz is characteristic of Wheal Pendarves, just south of Camborne, but there is no definite evidence to warrant this being added to the label. Rich felty mats of Chalcotrichite in fine needle-like crystals line many vugs all around the matrix; the base is almost as rich as the display surface! The intersecting crystals form as random jumbles and more ordered, reticulated clusters; a fine example of the latter is actually seen in the base. The Chalcotrichite crystals are a fairly consistent metallic mauve-pink with a bright lustre. A really lovely specimen.