Malachite (unusual / rare ''stalactite'' locality specimen)

Item Description

This piece is a really interesting and incredibly hard to find specimen of stalactitic Malachite from the Tentadora Mine in Peru. To the best of my knowledge, prior to this discovery, Malachite was not even been reported from this locality. This small miniature sized piece hosts several beautiful "balls" of dark bluish-green Malachite which are stacked on top of one another to create the beautiful overall specimen. The coolest part is that the center portion of the piece is hollow, but not in the typical tubular shape you would expect, it's more geometric, almost as if the Malachite formed around another mineral which later dissolved away (Gypsum?) to create a beautiful "cast" (epimorph / perimorph) inside. If you collect secondary ore minerals, unusual morphology or if you just like interesting thumbnails, do not pass this one up. It came from a very limited find, and few were available. We haven't seen another crumb of it since the initial discovery.