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Mineral Specimens with Copper
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2.4 x 1.8 x 0.4 cm. A beautifully crystallized thumbnail of Arizona copper, from the thumbnail collection of Allan Young of Idaho. It shows beautiful spinel-twinning along its entire length, and has a pretty "antique" patina.
4.4 x 3.8 x 2.2 cm. This is a beautiful silver specimen with accents of native copper on some of the silver, which provides a really nice contrast. The silver and copper metals are not intermixed. Although no old label comes with the specimen, it is numbered on the bottom ANSP#23423 which indicates an age in the 1930s, probably. Several of these crystals exceed 1 cm individually, and about an inch in aggregate. Ex. Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia Collection.
22.7 x 13.4 x 11.4 cm. The Rambler mine was in its heyday by 1900 or so, and continued for a number of years afterwards to dominate copper production in this region. This particular specimen is the only Chalcanthite of any kind that I have personally seen from the state is the only listed locality likely to have produced such a piece, although the label accompanying just says "chalcanthite - Wyoming - natural"). The specimen carries an old label from dealer Gary Hansen. Could it be formed from mine run-off? It DOES have the look of deposition from flowing solution, but this could have formed naturally, as the label says, during flow of water through the mine, completely unrelated to human mining. I am disinclined to think these to be manmade fakes. The giveaway is the presence of COPPER-REPLACED wood, embedded in the chalcanthite at the bottom and rear of the specimen. If you knock on it with a key or finger, the slender wood timber clinks like metal. The replacement is not 100% complete, as the wood is still somewhat malleable/bendable, but it is far enough along that you can say the copper has replaced much of the wood. So, we have a naturally formed example of chalcanthite, not made on a lab table - but formed post-mining from the runoff of the copper-laden waters running over old mine timbers. Ex. Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia Collection.
5.4 x 3.2 x 1.4 cm. A beautifully crystallized specimen of copper with exquisite form, from the finds in the Itauz copper mine that has turned up specimens as the mining comes occasionally back around to the specimen zone as the pit widens. This mine has turned out some of the best crystallized coppers ever, from anywhere, over the past 5 years or so.
12.6 x 8.2 x 0.9 cm. This is a large slice through a large specimen of selenite that has inclusions of copper inside it. You can clearly see, inside the very transparent selenite, penny-bright crystals of acicular copper in dendritic clusters. Ex. Consie Prince Collection.
3.9 x 1.5 x 1.5 cm. The Itauz Mine, at times when the strip mining has come back around to the specimen-producing zone, has produced some of the finest crystallized coppers ever seen, from anywhere. These little floater miniatures are particularly wonderful, with beautiful fins and spinel twins all over them.
A richly-crystallized, good-sized Arizona copper with wonderful overall form. It features fine spinel-twin crystals from top to bottom! For Ajo, this is a much better piece all things considered than if it were a michigan piece of somwhat similar form. Old piece, too, from a local collection 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 cm
A delicate "leaf" of copper, with penny-bright luster on both sides and beautiful, ornate form. 14.5 x 9.5 x 0.2 cm
A slender, elegant copper specimen crystallized from top to bottom, combining the "herringbone" style crystallization with spinel twins! 5.5 x 1.5 x 0.3 cm
This Photo was Mindat.org Photo of the Day - 26th Apr 2006
A beautiful and aesthetic arborescent copper specimen with a fantastic 8 mm spinel-twinned copper crystal perched at the end of one the branches. Excellent patina and material from a lesser-known Zambian copper mine. 3.1 x 2.9 x 1.1 cm
We have been leaking out these superb minis of copper from Russia, just wonderfully crytallized from top to bottom. This elegant one displays equally well from either side, and has a nice antique patina. 4.1 x 2.7 x 0.3 cm
4.8 x 1.8 x 1.7 cm. A superb, pristine, floater, copper crystal cluster from the famous, small 2002 find at the Santa Rita Mine, New Mexico. This arborescent cluster is composed of sharp, spinel-twinned and tetrahexahedral crystals with a very nice, rich, coppery patina. There are even a couple of uncommon, skeletal/hoppered crystals. The long compound crystal looks like a human spine. Ex. Ed David Collection.
2.5 x 2.4 x 1.4 cm. Interconnected, sharp, lightly iridescent, tetrahexahedral copper crystals with a nice patina on quartz form an aesthetic and sculptural thumbnail from the less well-known Gratiot Mine of the famed Michigan Copper Country. Ex. Dick Jones Collection.
18.0 x 11.5 x 7.4 cm. A large, sculptural, wonderfully-crystallized specimen of native copper that was in the Richard Hauck Collection. It has beautiful branching form, with chunky crystallization all along the branches. It has a very pretty "antique" patina, and you can see little accenting spots of greenish oxidation.
32.5 x 30.9 x 1.8 cm. This is a large, striking specimen of native copper from Michigan. It is penny-bright, with thin sheets of black shale here and there on its surface, and covering most of the back. It came out of the earth just like this, having formed as a thin seam running through layered shale matrix. The White Pine was one of the country’s largest copper mines. It dates back to 1880 but was reinvented as a company town in 1954, rejuvenated during the Korean War, and not finally shut down until 1995. It is worked part-time for specimens, still.
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Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
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