Chrysocolla ps. after Malachite with Quartz and Malachite

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa and the Kolwezi mining district lies to its far mid-south where some of the world's largest copper and cobalt deposits exist. This large cabinet specimen from the Tenke-Fungurume area in the Kolwezi mining district will add a significant burst of colour to almost any display cabinet. Comprising an attractive array of pale blue bladed crystals rising up from matrix 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 is a pseudomorphous, or epimorphic 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 these are Quartz coating Chrysocolla epimorphs after Malachite pseudomorphs after Azurite. Wonderfully complex and strikingly beautiful.