Azurite pseudomorphing to Malachite

Item Description

One of the now classic association specimens from the world-famous Mipillas Mine. This impressive locality has produced some of the finest quality Azurite crystals known to the world. This small cabinet features a fairly thick, blocky, sharp, lustrous, 3.5 cm "blade" of Azurite sitting atop a matrix comprising additional Azurite crystals which are partially pseudomorphing into intense green acicular Malachite with a slick adamatine luster and good chatoyance. A bit of host rock can be seen atttached to the front end of the specimen, and it is contacted around the base where it was removed from the pocket. Overall it's in pretty good shape, but you can see the main crystal has a few small imperfections due to the fact that it grew against the pocket wall and didn't fully finish crystallizing. If the piece were 100% perfect, I could easily see it retailing for $5,000+. It's still a showy piece with good aesthetics and that classic blue / green color combination.