Azurite (RARE locality specimen)

Item Description

This is a remarkably hard to find specimen of Azurite from the now closed Flambeau Mine in Wisconsin. This locality only operated from 1993 to 1997, but in that time, this major copper and gold deposit yielded some impressive mineral specimens. Most people are probably familiar with the superb crystallized Chalcocites (a copper sulfide) that came out of this mine, but specimens of Azurite are almost impossible to find, especially in good sized display specimens. Most of the Azurite you'll find from this locality is in the form of micro material, so to have an attractive small cabinet display piece is a big deal. This piece is unquestionably the largest and best example of Azurite that we've ever had to offer from the locality. The piece features attractive, vivid blue colored aggregates of Azurite on a dark colored matrix (Tenorite?) which looks beautiful up close. The piece originally came from Casey Jones, who had a contract to extract specimens from the mine. The accompanying label states that this piece was collected in 1995. It's an important specimen for the locality, as very few exist, and pieces of this size are quite rare.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 16.1.11 WI.1; 2317 George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information