This is a very elegant cluster of cuprites, that have been partially replaced by malachite. This is a classic, ancient locale. Few old specimens are available. My understanding is that specimens like this are still found in small pockets, from time to time - but usually singles and small crystals, not a big piece like this. You can tell by the weight that the replacement is only partial, and cuprite remains at the core of the specimen. But on the surface, it is solid malachite. A rare, interesting locality piece!

I first saw this unusual cubically crystallized cuprite crystal perched in its unusual quartz "cave" in the late 1990s when dealer Cal Graeber purchased it from the estate of collector Gerald Herfurth. I did not then have the money to buy all I wanted from his purchases. I always regretted not buying it then, as I had never seen a cuprite quite like this , and the aesthetics are just unique. I always remembered it and imagine my surprise when I saw it again recently! The cuprite (approx 1.1 x 0.9 cm) is sharp and interesting in form, and is perched nicely in what seems to have been a quartz filling of a cavity in between blocks of rock matrix, now removed. The quartz "pocket" itself is a floater, contacted and showing the pattern of the constraining matrix it grew between at the base and around the periphery. Where space allowed, the quartz crystallized into brilliant crystals of high lustre. Only one cuprite crystal seems to have nucleated within the pocket and, unlike others I have seen from this very same mine, it has a shape that is either truly cubic or pseudocubic. To be honest, the location of Shangulowe Mine has come down with the specimen but quartz is not reported from this mine, as I see it on MINDAT. Yet, quartz is also not reported from Mashamba West Mine, where so many of our cuprites come from. I believe this to simply be from a unique old mining claim or mine, probably an old vein in Shangulowe or a small dig nearby. The piece was sold by Graeber to Dr. Ed David, in whose collection it remained for nearly a decade before being exchanged into the collection of Larry Conklin, from whom I in turn obtained the specimen last year - about 10 years after seeing it for the first time! As a side note, the price now has been able to be the same price as it was then, due to teh various trades involved, and that I got it in a larger exchange I amortised, myself.  Joe Budd Photos

This is a stunning, seemingly carved, cuprite specimen with sharp faces and brilliant lustre. When backlit strongly, a gemmy red color permeates the outside few millimeters of the piece. This style (the thin red zone, and the bevelled edges) was rare from the mine's 2009-2010 production, amidst many more commonly found with no hint of red and sharper corners to the octohedra. The piece is complete all around, even crystallized on the bottom except for a very few trivial/minor dings or contact points. This locality has produced what are arguably the world's best cuprite crystals in modern times. The combination here of lustre, sharpness, and beauty of the crystals is together more desirable to my eye than all but a very few cuprites known from past major locales. This mine is actually being mined now, as we speak, through its oxidation zone. The mining is actually coming up into the zone from underneath, and when it is done - no more cuprites, no more coppers. So, as a bet, I think this will someday be known as one of the major important specimen localities in Russia for the 2000's, and these cuprites should go up quite a bit in price and desirability over time. Joe Budd photos

Mined in December of 2010, in the last really great cuprite pocket, this was a miner'sholdback specimen and has just come to market. This large and extremely impressive cuprite cluster features sharp, lustrous octahedrons, with good luster and a slight translucence. It is colored a deep red with vibrant lustre, strongly red when backlit (as shown, an extreme with a torch on it). Although complete on the display face, and all around, there is contact on the bottom face. It is very 3-dimensional. This stands upright and 3-dimensionally instead of in flatlaying plates, as most do. It is a superb miniature, of high quality. Based on current production here (and this mine is almost through its oxidation zone where these form), i do not anticipate more of this style. The new material at Tucson 2012 was of a different, in my opinion uglier, style.