Azurite

specimen number:
2354153

location:
Apex Mine, St. George, Washington Co., Utah, USA

description:
Attractive blue crystalline azurite throughout all sides of a small amount of brecciated matrix with green malachite. The specimen comes with an antique label from the old company Minerals Unlimited in Berkeley, California. In good condition. Neat for this old locality.

Located near St. George in Washington County, Utah, the Apex Mine is a historic underground deposit situated in the Jarvis Peak area of the Beaver Dam Mountains. Originally opened in the late nineteenth century as a small-scale copper and silver producer, the mine later became famous in the mid-twentieth century as one of the few primary domestic sources of germanium and gallium, extracted from oxidized iron-rich ores. Geologically, the deposit consists of heavily oxidized carbonate replacement bodies housed within fault zones in Mississippian-age limestone units. Decades of intense supergene weathering transformed the primary sulfide minerals into a complex secondary oxidation zone, creating a world-renowned mineral collecting locality celebrated for colorful secondary copper, lead, zinc, and germanium-bearing species such as copper-rich adamite, roscoeite, and rare germanium carbonates. The underground access is now closed and abandoned.

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