Native Copper pseudomorph after Cuprite (RARE for the locality)

Item Description

An incredibly rare specimen from this renowned and prolific locality. I love these kind of pseudomorphs where a native element (Copper), gives way to oxidation and forms Cuprite only to be replaced by the same native element from which is formed! I can only remember seeing one other example of this material, and while the minerals themselves are not rare, the paragenesis is certainly hard to find. Keep in mind that while there is a good amount of Copper at Tsumeb, it's not terribly common to find Native Copper specimens, particularly pseudomorphs after Cuprite! There are several pseudomorphs on this specimen featuring Native Copper replacing dodecahedral crystals of Cuprite which measure up to 4 mm, but the cherry on top is that there are multiple crystals and dendritic "branches" of Copper which are FLARING out of the pseudomorphs! The matrix appears to be white Dolomite, but if you flip the piece over, you can see a gorgeous "jewel"-like cyclic twin of gem colorless Cerussite that measures 4 mm, and a bit of rhombic Calcite as well. There are multiple generations of deposition / crystallization taking place here and the pseudomorphs look fantastic when viewed with magnification. Gorgeous formations and morphology to be seen! A really beautiful and notably scarce example from what is one of if not the greatest mineral producing locality in history.
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.