Aurichalcite

specimen number:
2062432

location:
Sunshine #6 Tunnel, Blanchard Mine, Socorro Co., New Mexico, USA

description:
Excellent locality example for the species, an open pocket 2.5 cm across in a bladed barite crystal matrix is coated with sky-blue acicular crystals of aurichalcite. Collected in the early 1970s.

The Sunshine #6 Tunnel, located within the Blanchard Mine group in the Hansonburg Mining District of Socorro County, New Mexico, was originally opened between 1958 and 1960 by the Sunshine Mining Company as an exploratory adit, though it marketed no commercial ore; it was later closed due to hazardous conditions in 1979 by Western General Resources, briefly re-opened for mineral exploration in 1988, and subsequently sealed shut again. Geologically, the deposit sits within hydrothermal Rio Grande Rift fluorite-barite-galena mineralization hosted in Pennsylvanian-aged limestone and shale, where circulating paleofluids interacted with carbonate host rocks to create rich open-space fillings and vugs. Within these oxidized zones, rare secondary minerals thrived, most notably aurichalcite, which occurs as delicate, pale blue to greenish-blue crystalline sprays and acicular tufts alongside other secondary species like linarite, spangolite, and brochantite.

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