Malachite with Quartz (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

An incredibly hard to find specimen of Malachite from the old Blue Wing Mine (which lies very close to the town of Virgilina just over the border into Virginia) in North Carolina. The piece is one of only a select few cabinet sized pieces I've seen from the locality, which dates back to the 1890s. This specimen features attractive globular groups of pleasing minty green to medium green botryoidal Malachite, associated with partial crystals of Quartz on matrix. The label accompanying the piece states that it was collected pre-1975, so it's at least 50 years old, though it's hard to say how far back it collected. Malachite is not a species that most people would associate with minerals of North Carolina, and to have a big showy cabinet sized example like this is really impressive and desirable. If you collect secondary ore minerals, copper species or minerals of North Carolina, this is a rare opportunity to get your hands on something that is virtually unseen in today's market. Valued $1,500.
From the collection of Norman Kennedy ("Kenny") Gay (1953-2023), a geologist, geoscience educator and mineral collector from North Carolina. (#M28 C.1). 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.