Primary Malachite on Chrysocolla on Malachite

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This miniature specimen from the famous Mashamba West mine in the Kolwezi mining district, DR Congo features a beautiful aggregate (2.5 x 2.1 x 1.4 cm) of blocky Primary Malachite crystals, individually showing a compact fibrous form and reaching 9 mm in length. These crystals are sat upon a geochemical oddity - a delicate, fan-like aggregate of intergrown bladed crystals of green Malachite overgrown by pale pastel blue Chrysocolla. Malachite should, of course, not take this form. These are Malachite pseudomorphs after Azurite, but the blades are wafer-thin. Powdery, somewhat puffy pale blue Chrysocolla encapsulates these pseudomorphs but often leaves the edges exposed to reveal the complexity underneath. Fascinating indeed. Opencast since the late 1970s Mashamba West mine now forms part of the larger Sicomines copper-cobalt project.