Anybody familiar with this type of crystalline mineral?

[digit]

A friend of mine picked this up from a rock shop while in doing field work in Nebraska. More than likely this mineral was not originally from Nebraska and we have no real provenance nor any name for this pretty blue-green crystalline mineral. There seems to be some overgrowth by some flattened rectangular crystals that may be unrelated to the blue-green crystals or they may simply be lacking the element (copper?) that are giving some of the crystals that unusual coloration.

 

Hoping this is a common enough mineral that it will be somewhat easy to recognize and identify.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

 

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

2 hours ago, digit said:

from a rock shop while in doing field work in Nebraska

Wow, that's beautiful. I wonder if it's some kind of chrysocolla. You can find it associated with copper. (Chrysocolla can be quite stunning like this) Minerals are amazing in their variations and different presentations. It almost looks as if it is associated with quartz crystals. 

 

Cheers,

Brett

 

PS. I'm not familiar with Chamosite but it can also be found in Nebraska and present itself in association with other minerals as an inclusion etc... this example is from a different mine but it may give you avenues to explore. 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Brett Breakin' Rocks

[digit]

Chamosite is something new for me (minerals are not generally in my bailiwick). Some searches online turned up this specimen but the chamosite seems to be the black crystals and the blue-green seems to be non-gem-quality emerald. Maybe that's the green in the specimen in question if these two pair up often.

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beryl-Chamosite-tmu51a.jpg

 

 

Chrysocolla seems to be more opaque than the blue-green crystals in the specimen in question. Let's see what others have to say on this odd little piece.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[FranzBernhard]

Neither a chlorite group mineral nor chrysocolla.

Funny change of color from green to blue! Some copper secondaries are nearly impossible to photograph properly color-wise. Dioptas is notorious for this behaviour. But I don´t think this is dioptase.

But I will throw in Caledonite. You may try to check out all the pics at mindat, more than 700, many from the US.

Caledonite: Mineral information, data and localities. (mindat.org)

The colorless crystals could be anglesite, barite, cerussite(?).

Franz Bernhard

[digit]

Thanks for the pointers--will do some research online.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Joni]

aurichalcite

[Ludwigia]

The clear crystals may be Harmotom, but that's just a wild guess. They could just as well be gypsum or one of many other clear minerals. And green copper secondary minerals are numerous, so it may be difficult to determine the id without an analysis. The alternative would be to post your request in a mineral specialty forum where there might be someone who would recognize the provenance of the specimen.

[ynot]

I  agree with auricalcite and the clear coat is most likely hemimorphite.

[digit]

Thanks all for the great responses. Lots of good pointers to research further. Will try to seek confirmation on a more mineral-centric forum.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken