Stringhamite

specimen number:
2354219

location:
Christmas Mine, Gila Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Blue non-lustrous groupings of micro crystalline stringhamite in groupings to 0.4 cm in diameter scattered across the top of matrix. Nice example for the species.

Located in the Dripping Spring Mountains of Gila County, Arizona, the Christmas Mine is a prominent copper skarn deposit first discovered in 1880 and named for the claims being staked on Christmas Day. Geologically, the deposit formed through the intrusion of a granodiorite stock into a thick sequence of Paleozoic limestones and shales, resulting in extensive pyrometasomatic alteration and high-temperature mineralized skarns. Mining operations shifted between underground and surface methods over decades of intermittent production before shutting down in the early 1980s. Beyond its commercial copper output, the mine is celebrated by mineralogists and collectors as a type or notable locality for rare secondary copper silicates, most notably stringhamite, an uncommon azure-blue hydrous calcium copper silicate found crystallizing within fracture surfaces of the altered skarn matrix.

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