Atacamite (old historic specimen) (ex Dick Gaines Collection)

Item Description

When it comes to Atacamite, most people probably think about the famous specimens from the La Farola Mine, but THIS piece is an old and very hard to find specimen from the historic Chuquicamata Mine. I've only seen a handful of Atacamites from Chuquicamata, and this one is certainly high quality. Several sharp, lustrous, well-formed, prismatic, dark green colored crystals of Atacamite measuring up to 8 mm sit atop oxidized matrix. A few of the tiny crystals show a small amount of electric green flash when backlit, but the larger crystals are essentially opaque. If you collect secondary ore minerals, historic specimens or pieces from Chile, do NOT pass up this important and fine quality example from this well-known mine. This piece comes from the collection of Richard (Dick) V. Gaines, and is accompanied by a beautiful antique hand-written label from an unknown collection with catalogue numbers 9021 and 898 written on each side. Both catalogue numbers can be seen on the underside of the specimen. It's hard to put a value on such a hard to find historic piece like this, but I would value it between $1,000-$1,500.