Carbonatecyanotrichite (rare)

Item Description

A lovely display piece of the rare hydrated hydroxy copper aluminum carbonate sulfate species, Carbonatecyanotrichite from the Qinglong Mine in Guizhou, China. I will point out that the Qinglong Mine is the only confirmed source for the species in the entire country. It's rather difficult to find fine quality specimens of this species from any world locality, let alone robust eye-catching pieces in this size! Specimens started trickling out in the mid 2000s (originally thought to be Cyanotrichite - as written on our inventory label - but It should be noted that many of the world occurrences for "Cyanotrichite" are turning out to be Carbonatecyanotrichite upon analysis), and are very few and far between these days on the market. This specimen is one of the better pieces we've had to offer in the auctions and features a rich coverage of beautiful acicular crystals of saturated azure blue colored Cyanotrichite with an almost "velvety" or "cotton candy" quality sitting on matrix. The pale greenish-blue mineral is unidentified, and I can't really find a species from the listing on mindat.org that matches, so it remains a mystery. The amount of Carbonatecyanotrichite on the specimen combined with the fact that the piece is very showy is fairly rare for this material. If you're a collector of secondary ore minerals, rarities or specimens from China, this is a great opportunity to get your hands on a fine quality display piece of this rare mineral. Priced at $1,200 in our inventory.