Malachite

specimen number:
8282024

location:
Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia

description:

A fine old time Russian specimen consisting of a cluster of beautifully crystallized malachite. Complete all around with no points of attachment. In excellent condition.

The Sverdlovsk region in the Ural Mountains of Russia, encompassing historic localities like the Mednorudyansk and Gumeshevsky mines, is globally legendary for producing massive, high-grade ornamental malachite. Geologically, these deposits formed in the deeply oxidized supergene zones of Paleozoic contact-metamorphic copper skarns, where carbonate-bearing groundwater reacted with primary copper sulfides at the contact between limestones and intrusive igneous rocks. Large-scale quarrying and underground mining began at Gumeshevsky in 1735 and exploded after the 1814 discovery of Mednorudyansk, peaking between the 1830s and 1860s when massive blocks weighing many tons were extracted to decorate imperial Russian palaces. Industrial mining for these iconic secondary copper carbonates wrapped up by the early twentieth century due to the exhaustion of the upper oxidized zones, cementing the historic district's status as a classical, closed locality.

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