Cuprite

specimen number:
2312612

location:
Kipushi Mine, Haut-Katanga, DR Congo

description:
Rich massive example of cuprite. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video.

The Kipushi Mine, located in the Haut-Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo near the Zambian border, is a legendary underground polymetallic deposit. Originally established in 1924 by Belgium's Union Miniere as the Prince Leopold Mine, operations began as an open-pit copper extraction before transitioning into a deep underground mine that operated for nearly seven decades until it was placed on care and maintenance in 1993. Management later shifted to the state-owned company Gecamines and subsequently to a joint venture with Ivanhoe Mines, which heavily redeveloped the site for modern production. Geologically, the deposit sits on the southern margin of the Central African Copperbelt, hosted within steeply dipping Neoproterozoic dolomites and carbonaceous sedimentary rocks of the Katanga Supergroup along a major fault zone and mega-breccia structure. Mineralogically, Kipushi is world-renowned for its extraordinarily high-grade copper and zinc ores, featuring massive concentrations of sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and rich associated by-products including germanium, lead, and silver.

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