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Malachite Psm Azurite

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PDM775704

Malachite Psm Azurite

Pseudomorph

Description Tabs

Description
Locality: 
Mutoshi Mine, Mutoshi, Kolwezi District, Lualaba, DR Congo
Class: 
Crystals on Matrix
Size Range: 
Miniature (4.5-7 cm)
Size: 
5.6 × 4 × 2.2 cm
Description

Attention to this piece!. It is a good and rare old specimen with well-defined thick crystals of azurite completely replaced by lustrous polycrystalline fibrous malachite. The crystals richly cover a massive porous azurite matrix. Malachite after azurite pseudomorphs are known in tens of localities worldwide, but this pseudomorphs from the old Ruwe quarry (Mutoshi) are extremely rare and azurite is very rare in the Copperbelt.

The source of this piece is the collection of Robert Verdoodt, who collected -or most probably exchanged it- before 1960. Mr. Verdoodt was working in the laboratories of Union Minière du Haut-Katanga and was evacuated to Belgium after the beginning of the Congo crisis in 1960. In my collection of pseudomorphs since 2015.

Mineral Data
What's on the rock

Malachite

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

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...

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