2.8" Cerussite and Green Malachite on Sparkling Azurite - Congo

This is a 2.8" wide mineral specimen from the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville). It features silky green malachite over a bed of sparkling, deep blue azurite crystals. Yellow-white cerussite crystals can be found scattered across the malachite.

Comes with an acrylic display stand.

About Cerussite

Cerussite is a lead-carbonate mineral with the chemical formula PbCO3, and is an important ore of lead. It is a common weathering product of galena, explaining why it is typically extracted from oxidized zones of lead ore deposits. It can form into a variety of different structures, sometimes in fibrous patterns and other times in granular aggregations, though it generally forms vitreous pseudo-hexagonal crystals. Its colors vary depending on composition and structure: it is most commonly colorless, white, grey and green-tinted.

About Malachite

Malachite is an intense green copper-based mineral that can be found in a wide variety of forms. Malachite can grow in botryoidal masses, stalactitic formations, and reniform formations, typically as a tight cluster of fanning fibrous needles that make up a seemingly solid mass. As layers continue to stack during formation, banded patterns can sometimes begin to take shape, explaining the rings in all shades of green seen on most polished malachite specimens.

Malachite results from the weathering of other copper ores, and is very often found associated with other copper-based minerals such as azurite and chrysocolla. It can be found in copper deposits around the world, but the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the primary source for polished malachite and mineral specimens.

Malachite has been prized since ancient times, first as a utilitarian copper ore, then as an ornamental stone. Due to its value as a decorative stone, it is rarely mined as a copper ore anymore.

About Azurite

Azurite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral best known for its beautiful and vibrant blue appearance. Azurite typically forms in nodular formations with other colorful, copper-rich minerals. It is a secondary mineral that precipitated in pores, crevices, and caverns from water with high concentrations of carbon dioxide.

Azurite and malachite are known to form in union with each other since their chemical makeup is very similar. In fact, the presence of more or less water in the location of formation is enough to determine whether an abundance of malachite over azurite, or vise-versa, will accumulate.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Malachite, Azurite & Cerussite
LOCATION
Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville)
SIZE
2.8 x 2.5"
CATEGORY
ITEM
#326848