Malachite

specimen number:
2262238

location:
Bisbee, Cochise Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Green banded botryoidal malachite specimen with little attached matrix. Nice reference quality example for the species and locality. Specimen comes with a previous collection data card as shown at the end of the video.

The Bisbee mining district, situated within the Mule Mountains of Cochise County, Arizona, is one of the most celebrated and productive copper-bearing metal deposits in North American history, globally renowned for its spectacular secondary copper minerals. Geologically, this world-class district represents a complex porphyry copper system focused around the Jurassic-age Sacramento Hill granodiorite stock, which intruded a thick sequence of Paleozoic limestones and shales. Intense hydrothermal alteration and widespread faulting created vast sulfide ore bodies that were subsequently subjected to deep, extensive supergene weathering and oxidization over millions of years. This process generated immense, high-grade carbonate and oxide enrichment zones, producing legendary quantities of magnificent malachite, azurite, cuprite, and chrysocolla embedded within ferruginous gossan and limestone matrices. Historically, the deposit was first discovered by prospectors in 1877, quickly leading to the establishment of the famous Copper Queen Mine. Large-scale underground mining and subsequent open-pit quarrying at the massive Lavender Pit expanded dramatically under the management of Phelps Dodge Corporation throughout the 20th century. Corporate extraction ran continuously for nearly a century until the depletion of profitable ore reserves led to the permanent cessation of all commercial mining operations in 1975.

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