At the end of January, I drove from Florida to Arizona to purchase minerals for the Gitche Gumee Museum’s gift shop. I used to go to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show every year. Now, to minimize expenses, I go every three to four years. But it is always to go to this huge show (which is actually more than 40 separate shows located all over the city)!
One of the minerals I purchased this year for the first time is a combination rock from the Democratic-Republican of the Congo (formerly Zaire). This country of more than 100 million people is in the middle of the African continent.
In the past, the museum has sold Chrysocolla and Malachite but never had I had the privilege of selling this combination rock. The green in these specimens is malachite; the blue is chrysocolla. There is also black heterogenite included in some of the specimens. These minerals are secondary-fill copper minerals that form deep underground.
Chrysocolla has a blue-green/cyan color and is a minor secondary ore of copper that formed when copper ores were altered by mineral-rich fluids
Malachite also gets its color from copper, which makes up about 58 percent of its content.
Technically, malachite is a “secondary mineral,” which means it formed when copper-rich rocks were dissolved or chemically altered by circulating fluids. Malachite’s characteristic swirling and concentric patterns are a result of this formation process. This beautiful mineral was mined in Egypt over 6,000 years ago. Not only was it used as both a gemstone and a decorative stone, but it was ground into green pigments for painting and cosmetics. Synthetic green pigments equaling the vivid color of Malachite were not developed for thousands of years until the Industrial Revolution. But if you decide to work on polishing and cutting malachite, BE CAREFUL! The copper content of the dust released from grinding malachite is toxic! Please keep the rough stone wet and wear protective respiratory gear.
Chrysocolla-Malachite is a combination of two copper-derived silicate minerals. Since these specimens contain different minerals, they are considered rocks. Minerals are consistent in their make-up; rocks contain different minerals and are not consistent in how much of each mineral they contain. An easy way to understand the difference is that rocks are like cookies: they contain different ingredients such as flour or sugar (which are like minerals). The sugar making up cookies may be the same, but other ingredients in cookies change – so cookies are not always the same!
In the case of Chrysocolla-Malachite, it is a combination of two Copper minerals. Copper typically formed as a sulfide, which oxidized when exposed to water. If that water also contained carbonic acid, it dissolved the copper and formed new compounds, including green malachite. If the copper was oxidized, cyan-colored chrysocolla also may have formed. Sometimes these two situations happened in the same spot and at the same time resulting in both chrysocolla and malachite developing next to each other and intertwining – which is what happened to form these combination rocks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Hi Karen,
We just got back home to Maple City from wintering again in Quartzsite, AZ.
We too added to our growing collection of rocks, gems and minerals and enjoyed perusing Desert Gardens, Tyson Wells and the Pow Wow, to meet, dicker and learn from the many old and new vendors there.
I was introduced to Herkemer Diamonds, Starburst and Fire Obsidian, Super 7 Amethyst , and several (new to me) jaspers; Spring Time, Purple Sage & Dead Camel. Meeting some of the miners who actually dig these materials was very interesting
We also volunteered and worked in our Road Runners Rock and Gem Club and went on several of their rockhounding field trips.
During our stay, I was able to locate and “high grade” around 200# of Pangea Agate, which I brought back with me
At the Agate Festival last fall we talked about your possible interest in obtaining some of this material and I am wondering if you are still interested ?
We are also wondering what you can tell us about the status of this year’s festival ?
I was able to get to the Tucson show in February, but was not able to go to Quartzite. Yes, I would be interested in the Pangea agates, depending on price of course. Please send me a photo of the group of agates if you can. You can email me at kbrzys@jamadots.com. As for the Rock-On show, we have not yet made a decision. We hope to decide by mid-July, but the feeling of town residents is they do not want any large events in town until the threat of the virus is over. There is major controversy about the July 4th festivities. We are waiting to see what the Covid 19 curve does in the next month. If we do have the show, it most likely will be outside booths only with no speakers.
I might have chrysocolla in a rock form. I am wondering how do I get it out of this form. My email is alley_cat123@hotmail.com