Malachite

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Mineral guide

Learn about Malachite

vivid green banded crystals and botryoidal forms from copper deposits; color varieties, formation clues, and identification tips for collectors.

Regional guide

Malachite from Katanga Copper Crescent, DR Congo

from the Katanga Copper Crescent is not merely “Congo malachite” in the lapidary sense. For collectors, the name covers one of the world’s great families of secondary copper specimens: velvety stalactites, shimmering fibrous sprays, botryoidal masses with rolling surfaces, banded slices from thick stalactitic growths, and rarer crystallized pieces whose needles and blades flash with cat’s-eye chatoyancy under a moving light.