Azurite with Malachite

specimen number:
9892144

location:
Tongshankou Mine, Daye Co., Huangshi, Hubei, China

description:
Lustrous deep blue bladed crystals of azurite to 0.3 cm in size covering the top of matrix with minor malachite. Slight damage present, still in good condition and quite nice.

The Tongshankou Mine, located in Daye County within the Edong mining district of Hubei, China, is a classic porphyry-skarn copper-molybdenum deposit formed during Early Cretaceous magmatic activity. Geology here was shaped by granodiorite porphyry intrusions penetrating Early Triassic Daye Formation carbonate limestones and dolomites, inducing intense hydrothermal metasomatism that formed extensive contact skarns rich in sulfides and secondary minerals. Mining in the Daye region boasts thousands of years of human activity dating back to ancient copper smelting in China's Bronze Age, evolving into modern commercial open-pit and underground operations focused on extracting copper, molybdenum, and tungsten. For mineral collectors, Tongshankou is renowned for producing world-class specimens of high-luster brassy chalcopyrite, sharply formed pyrite, brilliant chalcocite crystals, dark green malachite, and aesthetically pleasing quartz and calcite matrices.

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