Chalcophyllite on Malachite (ex Al Kidwell Collection)

Item Description

A classic example of the very seldom seen specimen of Chalcophyllite from the Teniente Mine in Chile. This small cabinet specimen hosts several fine quality, well-formed, beautiful rich blue-green colored hexagonal bladed crystals of Chalcophyllite measuring up to 4 mm sitting atop a darker green layer of crystalline Malachite on host rock matrix. You don't think of Chile as being a producer of this uncommon Cu-arsenate, but the pieces from the Teniente Mine are comparable to those from the famous old mines of Cornwall or France or Nevada. This is OLD material, virtually impossible to find on the market today, and they were mined in the late 1800s - early 1900s. From the worldwide mineral collection of Albert Lewis Kidwell (January 1, 1919 - August 16, 2008). Al was a well-known mineral collector and research geologist with Carter Oil Company and later Exxon Oil Company in Houston, Texas. The phosphate species Kidwellite was named in his honor in 1974 ( https://www.mindat.org/photo-326405.html ).