Malachite

specimen number:
2292203

location:
Mashamba West Mine, Lualaba, DR Congo

description:

A cluster of lustrous green botryoidal malachite without matrix. In good condition.

The Mashamba West mine, located in the Kolwezi district of Lualaba Province within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a prolific open-pit copper and cobalt operation renowned for producing extraordinary mineral specimens of deep red cuprite and vibrant green malachite. Geologically, the deposit sits within the Katanga copperbelt and is hosted by the Neoproterozoic Mines Subgroup, featuring strongly folded and fractured dolostones, dolomitic shales, and siltstones. Primary copper-cobalt sulfides underwent intense supergene weathering and oxidation, precipitating rich concentrations of secondary copper carbonates, oxides, and silicates within the upper structural layers. Large-scale mechanized quarrying and open-pit mining operations commenced in the late 1970s under the state-owned mining company Gecamines, which actively worked the site until it flooded and closed in the mid-1980s. Following decades of inactivity and sporadic artisanal mining, the property was reintegrated into modern industrial concession complexes, with localized extraction and specimen recovery occurring intermittently through corporate and independent efforts into the 2020s.

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