Malachite: Shilu mine, Yangchun County, Guangdong Province, China

Description

Species: Malachite

Locality: Shilu mine, Yangchun County, Guangdong Province, China

Dimensions: 13.5 x 8.5 x 9 cm.

SOLD

China’s Shilu mine, known since the late 1980’s for it’s superb azurite crystal “roses”, has recently emerged as one of the world’s premier malachite localities, and is known for it’s incredibly sculptural, chatoyant, aesthetic malachite specimens that have, in my opinion, truly “set the bar” for this beautiful and popular copper carbonate mineral. This outstandingly aesthetic example was selected from hundreds of similar examples I saw last year on a trip to China, and hand-carried back to the United States by me. The “coral like” fingers of malachite extend in all directions and really make this specimen stand out in my opinion, and the excellent chatoyancy (you can see why the Chinese have nicknamed this material “eyeball rock”) and lack of damage are exceptional. The specimen displays beautifully on its custom engraved acrylic base by Sunnywood. A superb example of an important recent find. Annette Slade photo.