Azurite with Rosasite (RARE combo from Tsumeb)

Item Description

Azurite is a common secondary copper species, found in a large number of localities around the world. With that said, Tsumeb is one of the premier localities for the species in history, some would argue that the finest Azurite crystals ever found have come from this prestigious and prolific locality. This piece is a notably rare association specimen featuring highly lustrous, deep midnight blue color crystals of Azurite measuring up to about 1.7 cm, which have a coating of beautiful turquoise blue botryoidal Rosasite. While neither species is considered to be terribly rare, to find both of them together like this from Tsumeb is incredibly scarce, because most often Rosasite is seen pseudomorphing after Azurite (which typically has already altered to Malachite), so none of the original Azurite is ever visible, unlike this piece where there's a good amount of Azurite remaining. If you look closely on the edge, you can see a bit of dark green Malachite underneath the Rosasite. A really cool combo from Tsumeb, rarely seen in this particular way, so if you collect Tsumeb minerals or secondary copper minerals, don't miss out, as we don't have another like it to offer.
From the collection of Alex Neufeld whose accompanying label states that the piece was formerly in the collection of Verpmann and Georg Gebhard who wrote the Tsumeb (1991) and Tsumeb II (1999) books, and is one of the leading experts on the locality.