Azurite

TSNB684
Specimen
Palache, C.
Exhibit 2. Azurite; 59 mm.
Exhibit 2. Azurite; 59 mm.
Image Credit: Malcolm Southwood
Exhibit 3. 30 mm field of view.
Exhibit 3. 30 mm field of view.
Image Credit: Malcolm Southwood
Exhibit 1. Azurite; 59 mm.
Exhibit 1. Azurite; 59 mm.
Image Credit: Malcolm Southwood
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Specimen Title

Azurite

Associated Minerals

cerussite; malachite; smithsonite

Principal Mineral

Azurite

Size

Cabinet; 59mm

Location in the Mine

First oxidation zone

Provenance

Palache, C.

Collection

MGMH; 87490

Entry Number

Specimen; TSNB684

Associated Minerals

cerussite; malachite; smithsonite

Description

Equant crystals of blue-black azurite (to 12 mm), intergrown and generally pristine, but with one crystal (Exhibit 2) quite extensively altered to malachite. The matrix is mineralised feldspathic sandstone, the display face of which is encrusted with sharp, but tightly intergrown sub-mm rhombs of smithsonite on which sparse colourless cerussite crystals (to 3 mm) have also formed (Exhibit 3).


This specimen is figured in the azurite monograph of Palache and Lewis (1927) as their Figure 12 (in Plate II), which included both a monochrome photograph of one of the crystals and a line drawing to illustrate their "Type 6" habit described as: "Essentially equant parallel to a, b and c axes. Dominant m (110), a (100), 𝜎 (101), 𝜃 (-101), c (001)."


The specimen is from the collection purchased by Charles Palache during his visit to Tsumeb in April 1922, which dates it to the upper part of the first oxidation zone (i.e. 8 Level or above).