Malachite (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

A lovely little thumbnail of Malachite from the Blue Wing Mine in North Carolina. The front section of the specimen has been polished to show the layered bands of alternating hues of green color within the spherical aggregates. The back of the label states that the piece was collected pre-1975. A cool reference piece of this rather difficult to find material, from the far northern part of the state, near the Virginia border.
From the collection of Norman Kennedy ("Kenny") Gay (1953-2023), a geologist, geoscience educator and mineral collector from North Carolina. (#M28 C.4) Kenny worked for North Carolina Geological Survey starting 1995, and he was a member of the adjunct faculty at Wesleyan College, and a professor of geology since 2001. He assembled a large collection of worldwide minerals specimens, though he focused mainly on minerals of North Carolina. Kenny did substantial work documenting all of the significant mineral occurrences and mining/mineral collecting in North Carolina. He might be best associated with the Redmond Mine, where the rare extremely rare lead sulfate Kennygayite was discovered and named in his honor in 2022. Kenny was the first person to collect specimens at this locality, which lead Jason Smith to take an interest in this assemblage, and later name a mineral in Kenny's honor.