Dioptase

specimen number:
2102404

location:
Morenci Mine, Greenlee Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Lustrous green crystals of dioptase covering one side of matrix. Some damage present, this still quite good overall. Nice for the species and locality.

The Morenci mine, situated in Greenlee County, Arizona, is one of the largest open-pit copper mining complexes in the world. Geologically, the deposit is a classic porphyry copper system associated with Laramide-aged granitic to quartz monzonite porphyry intrusions that penetrated Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary strata. Hydrothermal fluids Altered the host rocks and deposited widespread copper mineralization, primarily as primary chalcopyrite, which subsequently underwent extensive supergene enrichment to form thick blankets of high-grade chalcocite and secondary copper oxides. Underground mining in the district began around 1872 under the Longfellow Copper Mining Company, transitioning to larger corporate operations under Phelps Dodge in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The operation shifted from underground mining to massive open-pit quarrying in 1937 to exploit the lower-grade, bulk-tonnage porphyry ores. The Morenci open pit has operated continuously for nearly nine decades, utilizing massive truck-and-shovel fleets and pioneering large-scale solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) processing, and it remains highly active today under the ownership and management of Freeport-McMoRan.

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