Detailed information
Species
Chalcocite
Dimensions
32 x 22 x 22
mm
Locality
Mammoth Mine Mount Isa Queensland, Australia
Condition
No recorded repairs
Thought to have come from a small find in about 2002, this significantly large and extremely well-defined crystal of dark steely-grey, metallic Chalcocite is not only an exceptional specimen for Australia, but is an extremely high quality Chalcocite on a world-scale too. Reaching 3.2 cm across and with further smaller crystals developed out from it this is a quite striking smaller miniature specimen for the species. It comes from the Mammoth mine at Mount Gordon in Queensland that was discovered in 1923 and worked a relatively simple assemblage copper oxide and supergene enriched copper sulphide ores underground intermittently during the 20th century. The discovery of exceptional Chalcocite crystals appears to have coincided with the reopening of the underground workings in late 2002, but very few good crystals were found, this being one of the largest individual crystals.