Malachite

specimen number:
2133287

location:
Lichtenberg, Oberfranken, Bavaria, Germany

description:
Silky almost chatoyant crystallized malachite coming off of a small amount of matrix. This is in good condition all around.

The Lichtenberg mining district, situated around the historic town of Lichtenberg within the Hof District of Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany, represents a highly classic European mineral locality celebrated for yielding some of the finest distinct, sharp crystals of the secondary copper carbonate malachite ever recovered from German soil. Geologically, this historic district features a complex network of low-temperature, polymetallic hydrothermal veins cutting through Paleozoic-age metamorphic and sedimentary strata along the northern margin of the Fichtelgebirge mountain range. During late-stage tectonic fracturing, ascending mineral-rich solutions deposited dense primary ores of iron, copper, and eventually massive fluorite within these fissures, while subsequent long-term supergene weathering and near-surface groundwater oxidation altered the primary copper sulfides, precipitating beautiful, deep emerald-green acicular crystal sprays and fibrous coatings of malachite inside open solution cavities and quartz-vein breccias. Historically, localized small-scale mining and surface quarrying for copper and iron ores in the hills around Lichtenberg date back to the seventeenth century, with sporadic, minor work continuing until most old-time metallic operations closed near the end of the nineteenth century. A major industrial resurgence occurred in 1936 when operations shifted to mechanized extraction of industrial-grade fluorite across several localized operations, including the Friedensgrube, Ruckersberg, and Alt und Neu Bescheert Gluck workings, which collectively extracted approximately 100,000 tons of fluorspar before the permanent exhaustion of economic reserves led to the final closure of all mines in 1967.

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