Malachite

specimen number:
9892059

location:
Katanga, DR Congo

description:

A loose cluster of green crystallized malachite. Very little attached matrix. In good condition all around.

The Katanga region in the southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has a rich mining history spanning from pre-colonial indigenous extraction and trade starting around the 5th century, to formal European-led industrial exploration beginning in 1899 and the founding of major corporate operations like Union Miniere du Haut-Katanga in 1906. The region remains active today with continuous large-scale industrial and artisanal production, meaning it is not closed. Geologically, Katanga sits within the heart of the Central African Copperbelt along the Lufilian Arc, an immense Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian orogenic fold belt. Its world-class sediment-hosted copper and cobalt deposits are hosted within the sedimentary sequences of the Katanga Supergroup (specifically the Roan Group rocks), where intense tectonic folding, faulting, and hydrothermal fluid movement concentrated massive reserves of metal sulfides and secondary oxidation minerals near the surface.

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