Copper (uncommon Bolivian locality)

Item Description

While Bolivia is well-known for its tin, tungsten, iron and even bismuth deposits, copper doesn't get a lot of publicity, outside of the pieces from Coro Coro. You might be familiar with the famous copper pseudomorphs after aragonite from this area, along with simple pieces of native copper, but Coro Coro lies in the La Paz Department, and THIS piece is from a much less commonly seen locality in Oruro. This piece hosts a rich amount of crystalline native copper with an obvious oxidation on the surface, sitting on host rock matrix. This piece was acquired by Brian Kosnar personally in the city of Oruro in 1999, but no specific mine was given. Brian told us that it could be from the Azurita Mine, but that was only a guess as it's impossible to firmly place the piece from a specific mine. You can see from the close-up photos that the oxidized areas have resulted in green Malachite and a bit of dark reddish-brown Cuprite. A cool locality piece for any fan of native elements or minerals of Bolivia.