Rarity

Chrysocolla is often thought to be very common and not rare. While it is correct that chrysocolla itself is commonly found on top of copper reserves, from a jewelry point of view its not about finding any type of Chrysocolla, it is about finding a beautiful one. 

“Beauty” is determined by the type of mineral mix (with chrysocolla just being one of several minerals in each mix). The mix of minerals (and therefore the coloration) varies from vein to vein and even within the same vein it changes with increasing depth of the vein. The veins are so characteristic in their coloration that an experienced Peruvian gem cutter can identify the mine by looking at a polished Chrysocolla product on the internet. 

Not all chrysocolla veins qualify for jewelry (in fact most do not).  Additionally, the size of a vein can never be foreseen. Some Chrysocolla veins may last a few years and put out hundreds of tons of chrysocolla mix. Others may end after a few months. 

Finally, even if a vein is good for jewelry, only a small part of the material within the vein qualifies for top-quality jewelry. Finding pure chrysocolla big enough to cut a cabochon is probably the rarest event of all. 

Taking all this into account, Jewelry-grade Chrysocolla is actually very rare, at least if one looks for a certain color combination. 

Availability

All of the following Chrysocolla mixes are only available in the smallest amounts that have been saved by us for use in jewelry. We do not sell the rough rock. We offer custom cutting of this material for jewelers and sell finished cabochons as well as our own jewelry with cabochons made from this material. 

Peruvian Chrysocolla Mixes

Each of the following mixes comes from a different mine. Many of the Chrysocolla mixes listed on this page are exclusive materials from Gemrock, because it is historic material that was saved up by us for jewelry production and the mines are no longer operating, with the veins being fully extracted. Therefore, most of these color combinations can only be obtained from Gemrock. 

Pure Chrysocolla (AAA)

Cyan-colored Chrysocolla. Very small amounts of green (Malachite) may be allowed. 

Classic Chrysocolla (AA)

This mix of Chrysocolla with Malachite (green) and Tenorite) comes from the most famous Chrysocolla Mine in Peru and has made Peruvian Chrysocolla famous. As production has greatly diminished the price of raw material has increased at least 1200% over the course of the last 6 years. 

Classic Chrysocolla (lower grade) (A)

A mix of Malachite and Tenorite with very little Chrysocolla. Still, a beautiful coloration for impressive cabs. 

“Water and Wine”

Super blue Chrysocolla (=water) in dark reddish matrix (=Wine)

Turquoise Chrysocolla

This is NOT Turquoise. It is a Chrysocolla with a color very similar to turquoise. This Chrysocolla vein produces a material that can not be used for jewelry. The high lime content in this material makes it impossible to polish. We own approximately 50 kilos of Tourquoise Chrysocolla that have been sorted out by hand from a total of 10 tons (10,000 kilos) of rough rock. This tiny amount (0.5%) has a consistency with very little lime that allows for using it for jewelry.

“Mother Earth”

Tiny superblue Chrysocolla veins within brown and green (=Malachite) matrix. When cut it looks like a desert landscape with rivers and lakes, seen from a bird perspective.

“Il Fresco”

A very strange Chrysocolla mix in a whitish or dark brown matrix. Especially the whitish version remembers the fractured coloring of an old Roman fresco, which inspired the name of this coloration.

Chrysocolla from other countries

Cutting Quality

Challenges:

In Gemrock we are used to telling our new gem cutters: “If you can cut pure Chrysocolla, you can cut any stone.” With an MOH scale hardness of only 3.5, pure Chrysocolla is probably the most brittle gemstone globally, and cutting it is any gem cutter’s nightmare. It can break and crumble in any of the production steps from cutting the slab to the finishing polish at 6000 grit. We estimate that probably 90 percent of pure chrysocolla cabochons break at any point in the production. Therefore, pure chrysocolla cabs are very expensive.

Gem cutters generally prefer Chrysocolla mixes, where the other materials in the mix provide strength to the cabochon. However, even if mixed with other minerals Chrysocolla cab production still suffers a much higher rate of breakage than other gemstone materials. This is important to consider when discussing fair pricing.  

Top-cutting-quality is characterized by:

• a polished backside
• a sharp unchipped edge between the backside and the bezel
• a very straight and even highly polished bezel
• a sharp unchipped edge between the bezel and the dome
• a well-shaped dome, not showing any deformation
• Top-quality polish

Pricing

Adequate pricing must take into account the cost factors to obtain top-quality cabochons:

• Acquisition of top-grade Angelite with strong color in the mine.
• Selection of material without impurities and discarding more than 80 percent of the rough rock as unsuitable for jewelry.
• A usual material loss of approximately 90 % of the selected material during the cutting and shaping process.
• The level of experience required by a cutter to produce a flawlessly shaped and highly polished cabochon from such a soft material.