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Azurite - Sold


Azurite is a well known mineral, named for its azure color. Chemically, azurite is a hydrous copper carbonate. While known since antiquity, it was French mineralogist F. S. Beudant (1787-1850) who first used the currently accepted name, azurite, in his 1832 Traité Élémentaire de Minéralogie.

At this locality in Russia, azurite nodules formed in soft clays; some ruptured and re-crystallized with sparkling drusy azurite. Similar specimens once came out of the Blue Ball mine in Arizona. Commercial mining at the Arizona locality seems to have ended sometime in the 1990s. When these specimens showed up at the 2016 Tucson Show, they created certain nostalgia for Arizona collectors. This example is especially fine with an unbroken coverage of drusy azurite. There is a curious bulbous growth completely covered in further azurite. Nice!