Cornetite with Chrysocolla and Malachite, L'Etoile du Congo M., Katanga DRC RARE TYPE LOCALITY!
A striking and beautiful combination specimen, presenting a surface layer of intense, sparkling, royal-blue Cornetite over sublime, electric-blue, gel-like banded chrysocolla. Small botryoids of chrysocolla are perched on the cryptocrystalline cornetite. The interior core of highly brecciated sandstone is surrounded by a layer of sublime banded malachite. The interior side view captures a violent diagenesis, with bands of gel chrysocolla and malachite flowing through and around remnant brecciated fragments of nicely contrasting light tan host rock. The colors are just amazing, with the cornetite and the malachite nicely framing and complementing the chrysocolla. Cornetite is a rare secondary copper phosphate, and the L'Etoile du Congo (“Star of the Congo”) Mine is the type locality. The mine is now closed, and specimens from the type locality rarely come to market. I have examined all the photos available in Mindat's public archives, and this particular gel Chrysocolla association seems quite unusual, not to mention jaw-dropping gorgeous.
