Copper (classic USA locality)

Item Description

This item is part of a special benefit auction for the Rice Museum of Rocks & Minerals (ricenorthwestmuseum.org). Items are either deaccessions from the museum's collection or were donated by generous supporters listed below.

Auction open April 1, 2021 through April 17, 2021.

Billing for this auction will occur on Monday, April 19, for payment using PayPal or credit card. Shipping will be billed at cost, or please contact brandy@mineralauctions.com if you'd like to plan on picking up items at future shows or during a stop through Dallas.

This very aesthetic, arborescent floater of Native Copper from the New Cornelia pit in Arizona, where most copper specimens are obviously destroyed for the primary purpose of operating the mine - to extract copper. The copper mines of Arizona have produced some very good Native Copper specimens sporadically over the decades of mining in the state, but great pieces like this are few and far between. This Copper is superbly crystallized with modified dodecahedrons to 0.5 cm across arranged in a very aesthetic arborescent form with several "branches" of crystals in arcuate arrangements. The entire piece is a very bright copper-orange with a metallic luster that is satiny in places. This is a very elegant Ajo, Arizona Copper.