Dioptase

specimen number:
9862027

location:
Ray Mine, Pinal Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Sparkling green crystals of dioptase to 0.1 cm in size on matrix. Good locality example for the species.

The Ray Mine, located in Pinal County, Arizona, is a major porphyry copper mining district with a rich history dating back to the late 19th century, when underground extraction began around 1880 before transitioning to large-scale open-pit operations in the early 20th century under developers like the Ray Consolidated Copper Company. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within Precambrian schist and Laramide-age granodiorite porphyry intrusions, where intense hydrothermal alteration and supergene enrichment concentrated vast copper resources near the surface. The mine has operated almost continuously for over a century, evolving into one of Arizona's premier copper producers and yielding notable secondary mineral specimens historically.

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