MALACHITE FIBROUS AUSSIE

A great Malachite specimen from Australia!  Interesting form, beautiful colour and crystals.  An oresome collection piece.  Small specimen mounted on a perspex pad for enhanced display.

Location:
Browns Deposit, Rum Jungle, Northern Territory, Australia.

Dimensions:
3.2cm x 2.3cm x 2cm ,15 g.

Malachite:  Cu₂(CO₃)(OH)₂ Copper Carbonate Hydroxide.

Named in antiquity (see Pliny the Elder, 79 CE) molochitus after the Greek for “mallows,” in allusion to the green color of the leaves. Known in the new spelling, malachites, at least by 1661.  Malachite is a green, very common secondary copper mineral with a widely variable habit. Typically it is found as crystalline aggregates or crusts, often banded in appearence, like agates. It is also often found as botryoidal clusters of radiating crystals, and as mammillary aggregates as well. Single crystals and clusters of distinguishable crystals are uncommon, but when found they are typically acicular to prismatic. It is also frequently found as a pseudomorph after Azurite crystals, which are generally more tabular in shape.