Salammoniac (NEW FIND - rare locale)

Item Description

Stunning rich turquoise-blue translucent salammoniac crystals on this most colorful two-generation, two-sided specimen from a NEW FIND at this less well-known large modern open-pit porphyry copper mine in Peru. Colorless, translucent, salammoniac crystals coat the striking sculptural knobby side composed of sharply terminated prisms. The uncoated crystallized back REALLY shows the striking rich blue color. Salammoniac is a rare ammonium chloride, without water. It is generally found as colorless, white or yellow-brown crystals. The intense blue color is RARE and is thought to be caused by copper inclusions. MINDAT does not list the species for the locale and there are NO photos of any of the numerous species listed for the mine, other than the three pieces shown we obtained from the limited find. Remarkable two colors for a rare species from a New Find! BETTER in person. Difficult to photograph and hard to see the colorless crystals in the photos. The turquoise color GLOWS, when back lit!