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Chalcocite Azurite & Malachite Psm Fossil Wood

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CLB600638

Chalcocite Azurite & Malachite Psm Fossil Wood

Pseudomorph

Description Tabs

Description
Locality: 
Nacimiento Mine, San Pablo, Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States of America
Class: 
Massive/Crystalline
Size Range: 
Small cabinet (7-10 cm)
Size: 
7 × 5.2 × 2.4 cm
Description

Chalcocite pseudomorph after wood. Those fossilized logs were really used as ore, most of them melted down for the copper. Nowadays this material is very scarce and sought after. As far as I know this is the only locality which had this kind of chalcocite-after-wood pseudomorph.

This specimen shows double alteration - chalcocite starting to be replaced by azurite and then malachite. According to an analysis tenorite also present.

Mineral Data
What's on the rock

Chalcocite

Formula: 
Cu2S
Strunz: 
2.BA.05
Crystal System: 
Monoclinic
Hardness: 
2.5 - 3.0

Azurite

Formula: 
Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2
Strunz: 
5.BA.05
Crystal System: 
Monoclinic
Hardness: 
3.5 - 4.0
Type Locality: 
Chessy copper mines, Chessy-les-Mines, Le Bois d'Oingt, Rhône, Rhône-Alpes, France...

Malachite

Formula: 
Cu2(CO3)(OH)2
Strunz: 
5.BA.10
Crystal System: 
Monoclinic
Hardness: 
3.5 - 4.0

Wood

Variety Of: 

Plant

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