Copper

Item Description

A good quality, well-crystallized example of these now classic Coppers from Kazakhstan. These pieces started to hit the market in the mid 2000s, and they were (and still are) some of the finest crystallized examples from any world locality. Many of these pieces feature amazing forms, including attractive skeletal habits, dramatic twinning and beautiful arborescent forms. I consider this to be one of the most significant Copper discoveries in the last 50 years, and they have already proven themselves as modern-day classics. This specimen is a complete "floater" featuring beautiful well-formed, smooth crystals, eye-catching twins and skeletal / "hoppered" forms. Under magnification, you can see the crystals on the front are very SHARP, and the patina on this specimen gives it an antique appearance, which truly stands out among many others that I've seen from this classic locality. Great presentation and quality.
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.