Brochantite

specimen number:
2072148

location:
Milpillas Mine, Sonora, Mexico

description:

A wonderful example for the species with prismatic green crystals of brochantite to 3.0 cm in length covering the top of matrix. This is in really good condition.

The Milpillas Mine, located in the Cuitaca area of Santa Cruz Municipality in Sonora, Mexico, is a modern copper mine famous for producing some of the finest secondary copper minerals in the world. Geologically, it is a distal porphyry copper deposit where the primary mineralization is buried under several hundred meters of post-mineral gravels and volcanic rocks. The world-class specimens found here formed in a deep secondary enrichment zone, where oxidizing surface waters reacted with primary copper sulfides to create spectacular crystallized minerals. Historically, the mine began development in 2001 and commenced full production in 2006, operated by Industrias Penoles. It gained instant fame among mineralogists for its extraordinary brochantite, a copper sulfate mineral that appears as deep emerald-green, lustrous, acicular to prismatic crystals. Unlike the typical small or matte crystals found elsewhere, Milpillas brochantite often occurs in large, brilliant groups that are considered the best of the species. While the mine was designed for industrial copper cathode production, the careful recovery of these pockets by miners until the late 2010s has made it a legendary locality in contemporary mineralogy.

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