SOLD
TUC104-21
Copper (Spinel-Twinned)
Chino Mine (Santa Rita Pit; Santa Rita Mine), Santa Rita, Santa Rita District, Grant Co., New Mexico, USA
Cabinet, 10.1 x 3.1 x 2.6 cm
SOLD
This large specimen is one of the few "matrixy" pieces found amidst hundreds of floater single crystals and a very few clusters, in this deposit (in approx 2006). It is a memorable piece to me for its unique aesthetics, as it is perched on a knob of rough copper like a teeter-totter on a playground; and was one of my first picks of the lot when it came up for sale. I have recently bought it back from the collector I sold it to back when they came out. These exquisite Chino coppers were found just in one small area of the pit, in a lucky find of a single elongated vein. Although several hundreds of smaller crystals were recovered, only a relative handful of perfect, doubly-terminated coppers of this size magnitude were found. This piece is particularlysharp, and shows the characteristic twinning flanges flaring off around the side of the main axis, which itself is an elongated spinel-twinned copper crystal