Malachite on Copper

specimen number:
2292400

location:
Tsumeb Mine, Otjikoto, Namibia (?)

description:
Green crystalline malachite across a native copper crystal matrix. This came to us with no locality designation, I am guessing that it is from Tsumeb, Namibia.

The Tsumeb Mine, located in northern Namibia, is a legendary polymetallic deposit situated within the Otavi Mountain Land. Geologically, the ore body is a steeply dipping, pipe-like structure hosted in Neoproterozoic carbonate rocks like dolomite and limestone. This pipe was created by ancient karst processes and filled with sandstone breccia, which was subsequently mineralized by deep-seated, metal-rich hydrothermal fluids. Uniquely, migrating groundwater formed three distinct vertical oxidation zones at depth, resulting in a mineralogical paradise featuring over 300 different validated minerals. Historically, local indigenous peoples mined the outcrop for copper centuries before German and British interests surveyed the site in the late nineteenth century. Large-scale commercial mining ran from 1897 until 1996, producing millions of tonnes of high-grade copper, lead, and zinc ore, alongside rare elements like germanium.

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