PhotosAtacamite - Copiapó Province, Atacama Region, Chile
Any idea what the other minerals are with the Atacamite, and which mine the specimen may have come from?
Hello Roger
it looks like that you may have some whitish to yellowish Halloysite botroids on your sample. This is probably a piece from La Farola mine, Tierra Amarilla, Copiapo, which we have plenty in mindat. From your pic I can't distinguih if you have more asociated minerals. If you can make a close-up of the piece, probably I can help you better.
warmest from Chile
Maurizio Dini 
Yes, what are the tiny green xls, notable on the extreme lower right.? 
I'm thinking probably Pseudomalachite.
MRH Copyright © Collection & Photo : Pascale & Daniel Journet
So the little green things are probably pseudomalachite
The blue balls look like sampleite as the caption cays, but others call this pseudomalachite:-S
How does one know that these blue balls aren't chrysocolla?
Looks like the blue balls are chrysocolla.
But when the blue balls are xl aggregates it is sampleite.
Rob,
I previously assumed it was Olivenite as well, strictly from the appearance, but apparently it's presence has been discounted. See: http://www.mindat.org/locentry-616308.html
Just again looked closely at the one good association piece I have from La Farola (have two beautiful cabinet Atacamites, but are so pure, they're a bit of a yawn, mineralogically speaking). Still, these would not jump out at me for a Liebethinite I.D., but apparently that's what EDS has to say about it. The pseudomalachite on this piece is fairly typical looking, both in xtls and botryoidal (as I figured I was seeing in the image in question) and neither are as bright blue as the "Sampleite" image you've referred to here.
MRH
Atacamite, Halloysite, Liebethinite (not Olivenite) & pseudomalachite, on Glassy green silicous unknown - La Farola (5.5 cm) Thanks Mark. I knew nothing of this locality and went through the atacamite photos and was surprised to find an "olivenite" that looked like olivenite and identical to the labeled liebethenites. So I put it in my last post as I was going through the photos. Later I found it struck out as erroneously reported and edited it out of the post. You found it while it was under construction.
Having gone through the exercise, I now think the blue balls in the first photo of my last post are sampleite. Do others who know more agree?
Sampleite and Chrysocolla have the same colour from here, but the sampleite show xls and of course chrysocolla does not. I can't tell if the pseudomalachite is xlized but it is quite green, unlike the chrysocolla and sampleite. Rob,
I also noticed that some some of the Pseudomalachite is encrusted with micro Halloysite which is likely the cause for the lighter color in the first photo as it is on some areas with the specimen I have here. There is no evidence on mine for anything like that brilliant blue sampelite or any Chrysocolla, so I can't speak to that directly. The amorphous glassy silicate that these crystals developed on is not typical for Chrysocolla, so I'm not sure what it is. (?)
MRH There's gypsum there that can look glassy. I don't have any specimens, I haven't sen any glassy silicate in the photos. 
This is a really not common sample for the La Farola mine. You can see the note beautiful bottle green Atacamite in perfectly terminated crystals associated with a massive mineral (Goethite?), dark brownish (medium brown powder) with iridescences on the surfaces especially purplish, sometimes coating nice groups of (I think - I've broken one of these, within is colorless) Quartz, so makes them look like a metallic mineral, sometimes gives pseudomorphs of radiating crystals (Atacamite? Liebethenite?). The surface is highly reflective, so it is particularly difficult to make decent micro photos. Present also a different green mineral (Dioptase?) in micro crystals intermixed with the Quartz covered by the oxide. What do you think about, someone has already seen similar examples? Ciao! Simone
I tried making a close up, but the photo I posted is about the best I can do with my inexpensive camera. Thanks to all for your interesting comments. I thought the specimen probably came from the La Farola mine also, but I needed a "second opinion." As to the associated minerals, I'll just leave those in question for now.
Roger Hi all,
at La Farola we have virtually all the minerals you mentioned, often is difficult to distinguish exactly every each Cu chlorides...more easy to tell if we have Cu Po. For sure we do have sampleite at La Farola, but since the mine has several workings and benches, the newest flat tabular gemmy atacamite xls showed in RAO and Luigi Mattei (RIP) pics, are indeed sampleite mica-like thin xls. This mineral has been found in the last 2-3 years.
They are intense blue, similar to lavendulan colour. Liebethenite is also not uncommon, it occurs as tiny light to olive green prisms with typical face-xls termination. Till now NO clinoatacamite has been analysed and confirmed, we often have green ball-like pseudomalachite after atacamite, while chrysocolla grains are quite different from sampleite colour. Olivenite occurs as green acicular sprays with flat and uncomplete termination, quite difficult to distinguish them from liebethenite. For those who has sampleite and atacamite, you have a Po indicator, so the asociated green prism should be very likely liebethenite.
take care
maurizio
