Malachite ps. Azurite

Item Description

Arizona pseudomorphs do not often come into people's minds as foremost in the world compared to malachite from Tsumeb or Milpillas but sometimes they get good enough to compete! This is an elegant, velvety pseudomorph of malachite after azurite from the Morenci mine in Arizona, from 1980s finds. A large, bright green, rosette-like aggregate composed of numerous bladed spear points of former azurite crystals now completely pseudomorphed to splendid green, satin lustered malachite! The Morenci mine is a porphyry copper deposit in Arizona that has been in production for decades and is the largest copper producer in North America. It has also been an intermittent producer of very good mineral specimens over the years and this great piece is evidence of that. There is finely crystalline malachite on the backside where there is a distinct cast of where the piece was "attached" to the substrate. Valued $1000-plus.