Chrysocolla
About Chrysocolla
Chrysocolla is one of the Peruvian flagship minerals for jewelry and decor-products. It is a minor ore of copper that forms in the superficial oxidation zones of copper ore bodies and is mined in the Peruvian desert and on the western slopes of the Andes where artisan miners search for the greenish coloration in the desert sand indicating the presence of chrysocolla. By then digging into the depth and following the chrysocolla veins miners might then eventually find copper bodies.
There is however a number of miners being specialized on chrysocolla mining itself.
Chrysocolla itself has a cyan (blue-green) color. The interesting fact however is that chrysocolla veins are in fact never pure chrysocolla but rather consist of a mixture of this mineral with a number of others. If the Crysocolla originates from the Peruvian coastal desert we find it mixed mostly with:
- Cuprite – an oxide mineral composed of copper oxide Cu2O, and is a minor ore of copper. It is dark red to cochineal red, sometimes almost black.
- Malachite – a green copper carbonate hydroxide mineral.
- Tenorite – dull grey-black.
- Quartz – The white milk quartz or milky quartz is the most common variety of crystalline quartz.
When the Crysocolla originates from higher altitudes in in the western Andean slopes, we find it mixed with:
- Azurite – a soft, deep-blue copper mineral
- Malachite
- Tenorite
- Quartz
Chrysocolla crystals
Chrysocolla forms botryoidal crystals. We are providing Chrysocolla crystals in specimen flats and as crystal surfaces for gemcutters.
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