Worked from 1954 to 1970, this was once a HUGE open pit mine over 750 feet deep. It is famous for a find of these sparkly, turquoise-blue chalcoalumite specimens, often associated with a deeper electric-blue azurite. This is classic for the finds, and with the rich association is just a beautiful specimen. It is of very good size, too - most we have seen are smaller. The chalcoalumite forms rich growths into a protected pocket and so is preserved in excellent condition. Frank Valenzuela obtained this specimen as a gift from his wife's uncle, Daniel Estrada, who was a driller for this mine (He collected this piece in the late 1950's). Joe Budd Photos.

The finest and most lustrous, deep green cuprian smithsonites from this unusual mine were recovered in the early 1990s (George Godas and George Stevens with John Callahan) and sold at Tucson and to local collectors of the area. Frank Valenzuela was cut in early on the find, and purchased this piece from the miners before the Tucson Show of 1993. It is a superb, 3-dimensional, bubbly smithsonite with unusually uniform and rich color. The large smithsonite bubbles atop are complete all around, 360 degrees. It is simply at the top of its game for the size and is a quality level hard to come by today. There have been new finds, a few new pockets here over the last 20 years, but in general this first and earliest find is regarded as most desirable. Joe Budd Photos.

An example of this material would be a highlight of any major collection of the US classics , Arizona minerals, or in a pseudomorph collection. Or, just because they are so unique and beautiful, in any collection - I am not aware of pieces that look like this from anywhere else. But, there are few to be had. This large piece features unusually sharp crystals, whereas most are rounded. It displays well horizontal or vertical. As a bonus to its beauty, these crystals are actually a rare double pseudomorph! The quartz has replaced chrysocolla, which itself has replaced malachite. Some people say that the malachite replaced original azurite crystals, as well. Then, a layer of sparkly gem chalcedony (quartz) draped and coated it all , for sparkle and a thin transparent coating that also is protective of the altering chrysocolla underneath. With intense color, sharp form, and good size, this is an impressive piece that just "glows" with translucency, instantly visible in a case for its purity of color and its brightness. My own instincts and experience say this is very good. According to a very prominent Arizona collector I showed this to after acquisition, this is hands down one of the best examples of the material (and he knows more than I). According to MINDAT: "Mineralization also involves the copper silicate Live Oak vein. All outcrops of this vein has long since been obliterated by caving operations of the Inspiration Mine. The vein occupied a fissure in the sill-like body of granite porphyry facies of the granite that overlies the schist in the western segment of the Miami-Inspiration disseminated copper deposit. The chrysocolla was undoubtedly deposited by supergene solutions that collected in the fissures and contained copper leached from the surrounding rock." (see http://www.mindat.org/loc-6777.html) . In other words, a rare and now vanished occurrence. I often see damaged, rounded examples which seem rather lumpy to me, for sale at already high prices. This one is one of the best such examples I have handled or seen in collections, including the major old Arizona collections. It has been in the Frank Valenzuela collection for nearly 40 years. Joe Budd Photos.

This piece looks fake, in person. It has the most intense bright turquoise blue color I have ever seen in a specimen. It is a bubbly, 3-dimensional example of a rare SPECIMEN quality "gem silica," that is practically glowing with color. This is old material, and over the years has been treasured as cutting and lapidary material , where it sells by the gram. It is actually chrysocolla, with an overlay of transparent chalcedony (quartz) which gives it strength and sparkle. I have never seen a piece of this magnitude of color and brightness, on the market. Frankly, I ignore the material most of the time as it is usually in the form of flat slabs or little seams/pockets in big matrix. This is a SPECIMEN, though: two sided and nearly complete. It is not entirely complete - there are some gaps in coverage, due to contact or damage around the bottom periphery, but it certainly is complete on the display faces where it matters and all around the top, 360 degrees. I showed it to oldtime Arizona collecting expert Bob Jones, who was as impressed as I was; but comes to the scene with a much greater knowledge of context. He told me it was the best he had seen for sale in 60 years of collecting Arizona material, better than any he had obtained for his own Arizona collection when he was actively collecting; and he thought about buying it, even though he no longer has an Arizona collection. The piece is one of the oldest specimens in Frank Valenzuela's collection, and the oldest valuable specimen he had kept through years of trading and upgrading. He has been collecting since he was a teenager in the early 1950s (Frank is 73 now). After proving himself a pretty smart guy, he was promoted to a shaft supervisor position at the Inspiration Mine by the late 1950s, in his early 20's. He made friends with an older miner and fellow shaft supervisor, Tex Burlison, at that time. Tex had collected this piece in the late 1940s, and kept it for himself on a mantle at his home. Frank recalls always wanting this piece, the best piece of the whole shelf there, but Tex would never sell it to him. Well, it turns out that Tex's wife collected old antique bottles. Seeing another angle, Frank spent 3-4 years collecting old bottles he would find in the mine shafts here and in other Arizona mines he explored (some dating to the late 1800s) . He assembled a whole collection of them which he traded to Tex for this piece in the early 1960s. Is it expensive? Absolutely. It was dear to Frank and it was dearly sold to me. But at the same time, it is a perhaps unique piece of superb quality and unusual aesthetics. Moreover, it is 70 years out of the ground, surviving when most such material was long ago cut for pendants and belt buckles, and they are not exactly making more of this at other mines. Joe Budd Photos.