Chrysocolla ps. after Malachite ps. after Azurite with Quartz - image 1

Chrysocolla ps. after Malachite ps. after Azurite with Quartz

$1,250.00

$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

The colour of this small cabinet specimen from the Tenke-Fungurume area in Kolwezi mining district, DR Congo is exquisite even before we consider what it is. It comprises an attractive array of pale turquoise blue bladed crystals rising up from a similar, but slightly paler coloured matrix with patches of rusty iron oxides. These blue bladed crystals contain a core of green Malachite are then coated with sparkling drusy Quartz, or studded with green Malachite and then coated in Quartz. A geochemist's paradise, this specimen is full of intrigue. It is only when one realizes what these crystals are, or should I say "were" that the complexity arises. These are blades of Chrysocolla - an amorphous copper silicate - coated with a fine layer of colourless Quartz crystals, but Chrysocolla does not form crystals, let alone freestanding bladed crystals. The Chrysocolla in this instance is an epimorph, or cast, coating Malachite, but Malachite does not form bladed crystals like these either! So, the Malachite is a pseudomorph, but after bladed Azurite, meaning that these are Quartz coating Chrysocolla epimorphs after Malachite pseudomorphs after Azurite. Then there is the minor addition of more Malachite upon the bladed Chrysocolla, but before the encapsulation by Quartz - complicated or what! All this and with beauty too.