Malachite

specimen number:
9505340

location:
Mashamba West Mine, Kolwezi, Lualaba, DR Congo

description:

Very sharp green blocky primary crystals of malachite to 0.8 cm in size across the front of this matrix. This is in really good condition as seen. From recent finds, 2021, in the Congo, good primary crystals of malachite have never been terribly common.

The Mashamba West Mine, situated within the Kolwezi Klippe of the Lualaba Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a prominent component of the Central African Copperbelt. Formally developed as part of regional industrial scaling during the latter half of the 20th century, the open-pit operation has experienced various phases of state and joint-venture management, continuing active production into the 21st century. Geologically, the deposit is hosted within the Neoproterozoic Roan Group rocks of the Mines Subgroup, preserved inside a complex tectonic thrust-sheet structure. The orebody features classic sediment-hosted stratiform copper and cobalt mineralization, characterized by an upper zone of supergene oxidation containing rich assemblages of malachite, heterogenite, and other secondary copper-cobalt minerals, transitioning downward into primary sulfide assemblages such as chalcocite and bornite.

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