Azurite, Malachite, and Chrysocolla.
Copper minerals can be used as gemstones.
Chrysocolla, Malachite, and Azurite with beautiful blue and green colours .
Azurite (is a Dark Blue Colour.) occurs in the weathered zone of copper ore-bodies usually in association with malachite, which is the green on the rock.
My Azurite on the rock above was formed by leaching the Copper Ore . It is in a powered form, not crystal.
Found
I live in North West Queensland Australia and these Minerals, Azurite, Malachite and Chrysocolla can be found in a lot of places. There is a lot of old mines every where.
The mining company dig holes and leave them. The Azurite (blue) colour does come off when cleaned. Some rocks are just for collecting, you can not do anything with them. I have not found Azurite in crystal form. The rocks that have Quartz with other minerals like Malachite, can be cut and polished. Most of the time the rock crumbles.
When Cutting
Cutting these stones, is a very slow, they have so many fractures they crumble as you cut the stone. What you end up with is a beautiful stone , sum have natural copper running through them. ( looks like copper wire running through the rock.) Azurite dust is toxic and must not be inhaled when cutting and polishing
Make Jewellery.
They can be cut into beautiful cabochon and used in jewellery. These are soft minerals that scratch easily, so stones cut from them are best used in jewellery such as pendants and earrings that will not encounter abrasion or impact. Cab stones made with Azurite, Malachite and Chrysocolla.
Azurite -Copper Ore.
Azurite is a rare variety of gemstone-quality copper ore. Azurite is one of two basic copper carbonate minerals (malachite is the other). Azurite is rarer than malachite and is considered more valuable. The Azurite picture above, has a very thin layer of the blue Azurite, To look at it closely you would think the blue is a powder. I cleaned my first rock and lost the blue colour. It is not gemstone quality.
Azurite gets its name from the Persian word ‘lazhward’, which refers to its distinctive, vivid blue color. Azurite is a fairly soft stone .
Malachite
Malachite is a green copper carbonate mineral. Malachite is used as a source of copper and as a gemstone. It often occurs with azurite in copper deposits. Malachite often has distinctive concentric bands in varying shades of green, which make it an interesting gemstone. It is a very soft stone.
Malachite is a Very Soft Gemstone, it has been , use to be grounded it into powder to make eyeshadow. Malachite has also been used as the pigment in green paint. plus a lot of other things.
Chrysocolla
Chrysocolla colour can be among the brightest shade of blue and green, and is caused by its copper content. Chrysocolla is a soft mineral but it will hole together when cutting it because, of the other minerals, intergrown together with the Quartz stone. Yes I fell in love with the stone colours. Other Minerals you can see is limonite, which is a brown colour in the rock.
Chrysocolla Rock.
This rock has different minerals in it, the colour light green-blue is the main colour, with quartz holds it together, with other minerals.
It is a bit hard to identify a rock, a gemstone, because there is all different sorts allover the world. But if you love what you are doing, it is OK to tell your stories. I hope you enjoy my Stories.
The rock on the top of this page lives in my garden.
Chrysocolla
About Chrysocolia Gemstone.
Beneath the surface of the earth minerals, change there chemicals com-position, a different mineral results, but the original form of the first one is preserved.
The little trick is known as “pseudomorphism” which means “false form”, and brings in its train results sometimes disappointing, sometimes happy, but always interesting.
There are various ways of performing the act.
One mineral may be deposited evenly over the surface of another, leaving the outer one exactly the same shape as the one it covers.
Or perhaps a crystal embedded in a rock will be dissolved by some means, leaving only its shape. like a footprint, it the space it once occupied.
If this mold is later filled by a solution of another mineral, when it solidifies we will again have a mineral in the exact shape of the crystal whose place it took.
Then again, a gradual replacement of the particles of one mineral by particles of another might take place, or a chemical change can occur which alters it, but without interfering with the original crystal form.
The end result of any of these weird machinations is that the chemical composition of one mineral appears in the crystal form of another, in disguise, so to speak, rather like finding a pound of butter in the form of a loaf of bread, but although it has the shape and texture of bread, it squelches in the fingers when it is picked up, and melts when it is heated.
Very often the mineral pyrite falls victim to this strange metamorphisis, but the results in these cases cannot be called happy ones.
Pyrite is a combination of iron and sulphur, and the crystals it forms are big, brassy, lustrous objects, usually in perfect cubes.
But when, as sometimes happens, the sulphur escapes and hydrogen and oxygen take its place, the mineral limonite is formed, a dull-brown, lustreless substance where once was gleaming, golden pyrite.
Masquerading in its cubical form too, because limonite is amorphous. it never forms crystals of it own, it simply remains in the cubical form of the lovely pyrite it replaces.
Like Limonite, chrysocolla is also amorphous. It is beyond its power to form in crystals. But chrysocolla at the Dorothy mine, near Munguna in north Queensland, determined to make a display in keeping with its beautiful turquoise-blue colouring, and since it could not form its own crystal structure, the only course open was to present itself in the shape of another, and the mineral it chose to replace was azurite. It made a superb choice.
The process was similar to the change from pyrite to limonite. Carbon was removed from the azurite, silica took its place with a little hydrogen, and the resulting mineral was chrysocolla, greeny-blue tufts and bleds scattered over the surface of the vugh, which was dark coloured and velvety to ensure the right degree of contrast.
Like sky-blue sheaves of wheat tumbling over a field of rich, black soil, the Mungana chrysocolla, by taking azurites crytstal form, had achieved for itself more than a modicum of immortality among collectors, and ensured a place for itself in the lists of mineral occurrences that were great.
Happy Fossicking.
All the pictures above are from my collection, I am happy to share, and sell my rocks/gemstones.( at a cost)
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Wendy.
gemstonefossicking.com