Detailed information
Species
Quartz, Malachite
Dimensions
44 x 77 x 30
mm
Weight
83 g
Locality
Tenke-Fungurume area Kolwezi mining district Lualaba, DR Congo
Condition
No recorded repairs
Strikingly unusual, this new find from the Tenke-Fungurume area in the Kolwezi mining district, DR Congo is yet another fascinating geochemical assemblage from this wonderfully fruitful mineralogical region. This pretty small cabinet-sized display specimen consists of a finely crystallized highly siliceous greyish-white cherty matrix, forming a long open cavity within which four rounded pale blue-green to white sprays rise. These sprays have the appearance of frost-covered moss and are acicular Malachite (perhaps with partial alteration to Chrysocolla) with a relatively thick coating of finely crystallized Quartz. The blue-green colour is more intense within the core and paler towards the tips of the encased acicular crystals. Three of the sprays are complete, but the larger one at the other end of the cavity has the tips rubbed smooth, or was trapped against the other side of the cavity when it grew. It is this one which shows the greater intensity of colour from the copper mineralization inside. Individually, the sprays reach up to 1.9 cm in diameter. A pretty example of this strange new assemblage.