Azurite with Malachite (J-5)

specimen number:
9273071

location:
Touissit, Jerada, Morocco

description:

A cluster of gorgeous lustrous deep blue azurite crystals, some of these partially being replaced by green malachite. A wonderful miniature in super condition.

The Touissit mining district, situated in the Jerada Province near the Algerian border within eastern Morocco, is a legendary underground mining complex world-renowned for producing some of the world's finest mineral specimens of yellow-to-amber wulfenite, cerussite, anglesite, and azurite. Geologically, this major Mississippi Valley-Type (MVT) lead-zinc deposit is localized within a thick sequence of highly porous and fractured Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) dolomites that overlie an impermeable Liassic basement. Mineralization occurred when basinal hydrothermal fluids migrated along major regional fault systems, dissolving the carbonate host rocks and precipitating primary galena and sphalerite, which later underwent intense, deep-reaching supergene oxidation to create spectacular pockets filled with beautifully crystallized secondary lead and copper minerals. Historically, modern exploitation was initiated by French interests in the early twentieth century, with the Compagnie Miniere de Touissit (CMT) organizing large-scale industrial extraction starting in the 1920s. The mines operated at peak capacity for several decades, establishing the region as Morocco's premier lead producer, until the depletion of economically viable primary ore bodies led to the systematic closure of the main industrial mining operations between 1998 and 2002.

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