Primary Malachite on Chrysocolla on Malachite - image 1

Primary Malachite on Chrysocolla on Malachite

$950.00

$40.00 shipping
Seller offers an extended return window of up to 30 days
Ships from USA

Crystal ClassicsFeatured

Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,543 for sale·132 sold

This very large miniature specimen from the famous Mashamba West mine in the Kolwezi mining district, DR Congo is beautiful visually, and beautifully complex. A geochemist's paradise, this specimen is full of intrigue. Comprising a delicate fan-like aggregate of intergrown bladed crystals of green Malachite overgrown by pale pastel blue Chrysocolla it is only when one realizes that Malachite should not take this form that the complications arise. 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. Later, deeper green blocky Primary Malachite crystals have grown at the sheltered junctions between the bladed crystals. Fascinating indeed. Opencast since the late 1970s Mashamba West mine now forms part of the larger Sicomines copper-cobalt project.