Malachite PRIMARY (Ref: 7177)

A wonderful specimen of deep green PRIMARY Malachite from the Star of the Congo Mine of Lubumbashi. This mine has produced a variety of beautiful secondary copper minerals over the years, and this is an amazing piece of primary Malachite! The terminations of numerous sparkling, deep emerald green Malachite crystals dominate this wonderful tightly intergrown ´carpet´ richly lining a wide opened vug in typical matrix. Countless 0.8 cm crystals with multifaceted disc-shaped outlines top the rounded, emerald green aggregates. A remarkable and intriguing specimen of primary Malachite. Why do we always call it ´primary,´ you might ask? The large Malachite crystals most commonly seen with collectors are actually pseudomorphic replacement crystals after Azurite and not truly original (primary) Malachite crystals. This style, this find, presents Malachite that has formed its own crystal form without first having to transition through Azurite. A beautiful, relatively large and complete specimen of this rarer type of crystallization.