Reviews
This Specimen has been sold.
HERE ARE SOME OTHER SIMILAR FOSSILS FOR SALE
3.5" Cluster Of Brilliant Blue Azurite Suns - Australia
Please note: While we typically ship out material within 2 business days there will be a delay of approximately 2-3 days before we can ship this specimen. It's part of a lot of material currently in transit back to our primary shipping warehouse.
This is a stunning cluster of eight, brilliant blue Azurite suns on a kaolinitic siltstone/ sandstone matrix. There were collected from the Malbunka Copper Mine in the Northern Territory of Australia.
About Azurite Suns
Azurite is a vivid, deep-blue copper carbonate mineral best known for forming in the oxidized zones of copper deposits. Among its rarest and most iconic occurrences are Azurite Suns—perfectly flat, radiating crystal discs found only at the Malbunka Copper Mine in Australia’s remote Northern Territory. These striking “suns” sit within chalk-white layers of kaolinite clay, creating a dramatic contrast that highlights their rich, midnight-blue color.
Their formation is as unusual as their appearance. Mineral-rich hydrothermal fluids once flowed through narrow bedding planes in the host rock, carrying dissolved copper ions. When these ions encountered carbonate-bearing groundwater within the compact kaolinite layers, azurite began to crystallize. Confined between the clay beds, the crystals had nowhere to grow but outward, spreading laterally in a flat, radiating pattern. Over time, this process produced the circular, sun-like shapes that make Malbunka azurite suns some of the most distinctive mineral specimens on Earth.
Azurite is a vivid, deep-blue copper carbonate mineral best known for forming in the oxidized zones of copper deposits. Among its rarest and most iconic occurrences are Azurite Suns—perfectly flat, radiating crystal discs found only at the Malbunka Copper Mine in Australia’s remote Northern Territory. These striking “suns” sit within chalk-white layers of kaolinite clay, creating a dramatic contrast that highlights their rich, midnight-blue color.
Their formation is as unusual as their appearance. Mineral-rich hydrothermal fluids once flowed through narrow bedding planes in the host rock, carrying dissolved copper ions. When these ions encountered carbonate-bearing groundwater within the compact kaolinite layers, azurite began to crystallize. Confined between the clay beds, the crystals had nowhere to grow but outward, spreading laterally in a flat, radiating pattern. Over time, this process produced the circular, sun-like shapes that make Malbunka azurite suns some of the most distinctive mineral specimens on Earth.
SPECIES
Azurite
LOCATION
Malbunka Copper Mine, Utju, Northern Territory, Australia
SIZE
Cluster 3.5 x 1.8", Largest sun .75" wide
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#63216
