Azurite

specimen number:
2063344

location:
New Cornelia Mine, Ajo, Pima Co., Arizona, USA

description:
An outstanding miniature for the species and locality, brilliant lustrous blue crystals of azurite to 2.5 cm in size covering a thin matrix. Aesthetic and in very good condition. The quality is excellent.

Located in the Little Ajo Mountains of Pima County, Arizona, the New Cornelia Mine at Ajo is a massive open-pit porphyry copper deposit formed within Laramide-age granodiorite intrusive rocks. Native Americans and early Spanish prospectors exploited its rich surface copper deposits for pigments and ore long before large-scale commercial mining began in 1917 under the New Cornelia Copper Company, which established it as the first major open-pit copper mine in Arizona. Famed among mineral collectors, the mine's extensive oxidized zone yielded exceptional specimens of minerals such as shattuckite, papagoite, turquoise, malachite, and azurite until major mining operations ceased in the 1980s.

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