Liroconite with PARNAUITE

Unknown Owner

This large miniature Liroconite from Wheal Gorland in Cornwall is really nicely crystallized and with the classic rich smalt-blue colour but bizarrely it is the presence of an even rarer species which makes this specimen so important. That species is Parnauite, a hydrated copper arsenate sulphate hydroxide, which was not described until 1978, and not recognized from Wheal Gorland until the 1980s. This specimen is well endowed with excellent small wafer-like pale green Parnauite crystals and is the richest such example I have ever seen from Wheal Gorland. The Liroconite is not bad too - forming very glossy classic wedge-shaped crystals to 4 mm, and in two tones of blue. A really remarkable piece of Wheal Gorland's iconic gossan. Ex John Ruskin collection.