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Paratacamite - Sold


Paratacamite is a copper chloride hydroxide. Smith & Prior (1906) named the mineral for its polymorphic relationship with atacamite. After a century of additional studies, continuing to this day, it has become apparent that paratacamite is not quite a polymorph of atacamite since a small impurity of zinc (or other metals) is necessary to stabilize its rhombohedral symmetry (Braithwaite et al., 2004).

This paratacamite ball consists of numerous intergown crystals. It comes from the Boleo copper deposit, better known for its popular boleite crystals. This example dates back to the late 1970s; paratacamite is not often seen from this locality. Sparkly and rare!