Cyanotrichite (rare classic material)

Item Description

A classic example of this beautiful material from this historic locale. Cyanotrichite is a rare copper aluminum sulfate species and well-crystallized specimens like this one are few and far between. The specimen was collected in the mid 1960's at the Grandview Mine which existed in the Grand Canyon. The mine is long defunct and completely off limits today, but when specimens were being recovered, they were some of the most incredible, and brightly colored specimens from Arizona. This specimen is filled with dozens of excellent, electric blue color, acicular (needle-like) crystals forming radiating aggregates or "sprays" of Cyanotrichite with minor green Brochantite and powder blue Chalcoalumite on matrix. The needles of Cyanotrichite are very delicate, but are equally stunning to view. You can see that we've provided some great micro photos of what these crystals look like up close. Please note that there have been almost NO specimens from this locality available on the market for a very long time. This is a very rare opportunity to own a unique and attractive species from one of the more interesting localities in the United States. From the collection of Vasco Trancoso, a medical doctor and prominent mineral collector from near Lisbon, Portugal (https://www.mindat.org/user-11954.html). He assembled his mineral collection over the course of 60 years, and built a fine worldwide display collection that we recently purchased. This piece is pictured on mindat.org at https://www.mindat.org/photo-187697.html.