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

Chrysocolla ps. after Malachite with Quartz and Malachite

$1,200.00

$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

Who doesn't love a wonderful baby blue colour? This cabinet-sized specimen from the Tenke-Fungurume area in the Kolwezi mining district, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a very striking colour, and one which is not often seen in mineral specimens. Not only is it colourful and beautiful, but is has a fine geochemical story to tell. An attractive array of pale blue bladed crystals rise up from matrix. These are blades of Chrysocolla - an amorphous copper silicate - coated with a fine layer of colourless Quartz crystals. Of course, Chrysocolla does not form crystals, let alone freestanding bladed crystals. Instead, the Chrysocolla is a pseudomorph, or replacement, of Malachite, but Malachite does not form bladed crystals like these either! So, the Malachite was also a pseudomorph, but probably after bladed Azurite, meaning that this is Quartz coating Chrysocolla pseudomorphs after Malachite pseudomorphs after Azurite. Wonderfully complex and strikingly beautiful.