Whelanite

specimen number:
2354197

location:
Bawana Mine, Beaver Co., Utah, USA

description:
Fairly rich blue micro crystalline and massive whelanite throughout matrix.

Located in the Rocky Mining District near Milford in Beaver County, Utah, the Bawana Mine is an open-pit copper deposit that developed within a copper-rich, contact-metamorphic skarn formed where granitic intrusions altered surrounding Paleozoic carbonate rocks. The site saw commercial open-pit operations in the mid-twentieth century aimed at extracting copper ore, but it subsequently gained international renown among mineral collectors and researchers as a famous type locality for rare secondary copper minerals. Among these is whelanite, an extremely rare sky-blue to greenish-blue hydrated copper silicate-carbonate mineral that forms fibrous or bladed rosette aggregates. First discovered in skarn material at the Bawana Mine, whelanite co-occurs with other rare species like stringhamite and kinoite, making specimens from this single location highly prized by micromount collectors and mineralogical museums worldwide.

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