Copper

specimen number:
8911178

location:
New Cornelia Mine, Ajo, Pima Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Twinned crystallized native copper to 0.5 cm in length across the front of matrix. Minor green malachite is present, as well as calcite. In very good condition. The specimen comes with a previous label from the Alton collection.

Located in Pima County, Arizona, the New Cornelia Mine in Ajo is centered upon a prominent Laramide-age porphyry copper deposit hosted within quartz monzonite and related volcanic rocks. Hydrothermal fluids altered the intrusive complex, introducing widespread copper mineralization characterized by secondary enrichment blankets and fractured veinlets. Prospecting and small-scale operations began in the late 19th century, but large-scale open-pit mining took off in the early 20th century under the direction of the New Cornelia Copper Company and later Phelps Dodge, establishing Ajo as a classic Arizona copper mining boomtown until operations ceased in the 1980s. For mineral collectors, the deposit became celebrated for exceptional aesthetic specimens, particularly bright blue azurite and green malachite crystals lining fractures and cavities, as well as a variety of rare secondary copper arsenates and silicates.

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