Azurite Malachite

Greetings...

A new copper lens was opened recently in Goodsprings, NV. which produced a rather stunning Azurite Malachite pocket, with the quality you'd usually find in Bisbee, AZ.

So far just lapidary grade material has been retrieved, however a more thorough and sensitive look at this treasure is under way, with the hopes of producing some crystals. Please e-valuate this gemstone. thanx!

Additional images...

specimens worked by dremel and wet sand paper, showing lapidary quality...

two more stones, with small bic lighter to compare it with.

Seem to be just coatings rather than lapidary-usable masses. But photos could be better. I think you were trying to take photos with the objects too close to the lens

The material has little value as mineral specimens; maybe two dollars per piece on average. It's not possible to evaluate lapidary potential from pictures, because we cannot see the inside of the specimens, nor do we know easily then can be worked, or if they take a polish.

Thank you for your responses!!

wow, didn't you folks look at my last two images, where specimens have been polished to sub finished grade, and compared in size with the bic lighter? Some of these samles are 10 inches by 5 inches, and 4 inches thick lmao!

But if it will interest you, a slab roughly 3 feet long, roughly 18 inches wide and 12 inches thick is being worked on being extracted... as I'm sure many here will attest to the fact that this rock is delicate and MUST be handled carefully. It will take some time for this to manifest itself here, which I promise to make images of it available ASAP. Meanwhile, would a scale showing the weight of the specimen in grams help you at all?



Please pardon the blurriness of the image. The colors manifest the obvious material, while the numbers on the scale are clear. This specimen is 63.5 grams.



Again, please pardon the blurriness. this specimen is 149.1 grams.

Are any of you folks dealers? May I send you specimen samples for better clarity? I feel quite confident you'll agree with my claim that this is Bisbee quality material... worthy of the 45 dollar per gram that material sometimes fetches.

Please let me know, thanks again!

Richard,
I am a wholesale mineral dealer and have bought hundreds of pounds of azurite specimens that were much richer than your material. I would not offer you $4.50 per pound let alone $45 per gram. In fact I would not offer you anything for it. Lapidary material has a limited market here in the United States because most of the old time lapidary guys have died off and few of the younger ones that might have an interest don't have the money or the space to set up lapidary shops. If you have a lot of lapidary material to sell you must offer it to the Chinese factories or perhaps lapidary factories in India because they are the ones that have cheap labor.

I know that you will not believe what I am telling you, so I would encourage you to try and sell your material on Ebay or take it to some mineral shows and offer it to the dealers there, or to some local rock shops or new age galleries. I hope you can get more for your material than I think you can. Keep track of the hours you spend doing lapidary work on your material and your time and expenses in your endeavor to market it and see if you can do better than minimum wage.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

When lapidary grade azurite is discussed, it's the pure blue stuff. Very, very rare in my experience. Millions of tons of blue chalky stuff intermixed with gossan have been mined. This is fine ore, but of little use for lapidary.

What you're looking for is hard, dense, pure, material, free of voids or cracks or iron oxide matrix.

Nowadays, there is another option, though. You could try slabbing the material and soaking it in dilute epoxy or other crack filling hardening agent, the gold standard is Opticon. I've done this with some really nice looking azurite rough, nice blue stuff, had high hopes, but it was too soft and impure to take a polish. Its in general a big stinky nuisance. Opticon treatment takes less time, but requires heat and is more expensive. The epoxy and thinner method takes much longer, and needs a vacuum, but this is simple DIY stuff. Don't follow the instructions and the stuff never cures. Do it in high humidity and it doesn't cure. Buy old stuff and it doesn't cure.

Also, if you want to get more serious about it, the material could be crushed to powder and mixed with epoxy to form a manmade "gem". This would take some time and research to get right; heat and pressure are no doubt required.

I'd definitely experiment with slabbing and treating the stuff, but don't put too much time or money into it until it can be determined whether it takes a polish or not. Find an experienced lapidary in your area and give him a pound or two to play with.

You may have some good stuff in there, if it's mixed with quartz. However, this might be a variable-hardness material and will take some extra work to polish.

There is a certain value as specimen rock. You could probably sell the larger stuff as decorator pieces, everybody like a nice colorful rock. Crush the smaller stuff down to 1", box and label it, and retail it for a couple bucks apiece or so. Nifty resin table tops are another option, but don't sell it for aquarium rock, fish don't do well with copper.

With any luck at all some vugs will turn up, with nice crystals... then you'll have hit the jackpot.

PS - I'd strongly suggest you resist the urge to market this stuff as "Bisbee grade" until you upgrade from doing lapidary with a Dremel Tool.

Rock Currier Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Richard,
> I am a wholesale mineral dealer and have bought
> hundreds of pounds of azurite specimens that were
> much richer than your material. I would not offer
> you $4.50 per pound let alone $45 per gram. In
> fact I would not offer you anything for it.
> Lapidary material has a limited market here in the
> United States because most of the old time
> lapidary guys have died off and few of the younger
> ones that might have an interest don't have the
> money or the space to set up lapidary shops. If
> you have a lot of lapidary material to sell you
> must offer it to the Chinese factories or perhaps
> lapidary factories in India because they are the
> ones that have cheap labor.
>
> I know that you will not believe what I am telling
> you, so I would encourage you to try and sell your
> material on Ebay or take it to some mineral shows
> and offer it to the dealers there, or to some
> local rock shops or new age galleries. I hope you
> can get more for your material than I think you
> can. Keep track of the hours you spend doing
> lapidary work on your material and your time and
> expenses in your endeavor to market it and see if
> you can do better than minimum wage.

your words make perfect sense to me Rock Currier. the factors you've brought to my attention make things logical, yet all the more discouraging. thanx for your input. I may, unless I can find someone interested in chemical leaching, give this mirage of 3 ounces of Au per ton my XRF spectrogram told me my location has, since I can't find values enough in the other prospects this mine has to secure enough capital to set up a proper leaching mill. My life has been a repetative series of sticks and carrots, with everything I've accomplished... why should this prove any different.

Tim Jokela Jr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When lapidary grade azurite is discussed, it's the
> pure blue stuff. Very, very rare in my experience.
> Millions of tons of blue chalky stuff intermixed
> with gossan have been mined. This is fine ore, but
> of little use for lapidary.
>
> What you're looking for is hard, dense, pure,
> material, free of voids or cracks or iron oxide
> matrix.
>
> Nowadays, there is another option, though. You
> could try slabbing the material and soaking it in
> dilute epoxy or other crack filling hardening
> agent, the gold standard is Opticon. I've done
> this with some really nice looking azurite rough,
> nice blue stuff, had high hopes, but it was too
> soft and impure to take a polish. Its in general a
> big stinky nuisance. Opticon treatment takes less
> time, but requires heat and is more expensive. The
> epoxy and thinner method takes much longer, and
> needs a vacuum, but this is simple DIY stuff.
> Don't follow the instructions and the stuff never
> cures. Do it in high humidity and it doesn't cure.
> Buy old stuff and it doesn't cure.
>
> Also, if you want to get more serious about it,
> the material could be crushed to powder and mixed
> with epoxy to form a manmade "gem". This would
> take some time and research to get right; heat and
> pressure are no doubt required.
>
> I'd definitely experiment with slabbing and
> treating the stuff, but don't put too much time or
> money into it until it can be determined whether
> it takes a polish or not. Find an experienced
> lapidary in your area and give him a pound or two
> to play with.
>
> You may have some good stuff in there, if it's
> mixed with quartz. However, this might be a
> variable-hardness material and will take some
> extra work to polish.
>
> There is a certain value as specimen rock. You
> could probably sell the larger stuff as decorator
> pieces, everybody like a nice colorful rock. Crush
> the smaller stuff down to 1", box and label it,
> and retail it for a couple bucks apiece or so.
> Nifty resin table tops are another option, but
> don't sell it for aquarium rock, fish don't do
> well with copper.
>
> With any luck at all some vugs will turn up, with
> nice crystals... then you'll have hit the
> jackpot.
>
> PS - I'd strongly suggest you resist the urge to
> market this stuff as "Bisbee grade" until you
> upgrade from doing lapidary with a Dremel Tool.


Thanks for your input Tim.

While your suggestions are excellent alternatives to my attempt here, I still hold onto my claims that this material is 'Bisbee Grade'... allow me to post a few images of gems being sold from Bisbee:







If you compare this with the material I've made available... what differences do you see, outside of my material still existing in a rough state?

Addressing the things you mentioned pertaining to material grades, allow me to give you some additional info on the quality of this material:

It has no cracks, and Its a hardened silicate - like grade, not powdery or chalk like. that's probably because it came directly from the mine, in an unweathered state... who knows.

I've taken some new images, which I'll post next, of this material in sunlight, as well as size as it is laid out with a ruler.

You mentioned that the dark blue azurite is desired... while I know exactly the grade you're referring to, I do have all blue material... lol, just none that is transparent blue.

at any rate, I appreciate everyone's input... I'll post those last images I took and try figuring out my next move in life...

A significant issue in 'lapidary-grade' material is the material's ability to be worked and take a polish. Pictures of worked cabs from one locality do prove (a) all material from this locality is workable, and (b) material from a different locality is workable.

In the absence of such proof I wouldn't pay anything for unproven lapidary material, let alone $45 per gram (which, by the way is only 20% over today's spot price for gold).

Those stones you pictured are very low grade examples of malachite (in the first and last pictures) and azurite and quartz. It is possible that material from your mine may produce lapidary material of similar quality. However I think it will be impossible to achieve any amount of money from the sale of it unless you have tonnage of lapidary material which you can sell to the Chinese or Indians. You can cut the material yourself or find someone here to but it the cost of doing it will probably be at least three or four dollars a stone and you would need to be able to sell them for at least twice that amount to make any money. This may not be easy to do, and to make any kind of meaningful money you would need to sell large quantities of them to someone who wanted to use them in a jewelry design that they would want to make and distribute in quantity. They would have the additional expense of making it into jewelry. Also you would probably have to make them in calibrated sizes to appeal to this market. But if you don't know anything about the standard lapidary methods requited to make such stones or how to go about making the jewelry and distributing it you will probably spend a great deal of time and expense in learning about it and you are back to making less than minimum wage for your efforts. If you wanted to market you material as lapidary rough the first thing you would have to do is to have some of your mine run stuff, the kind you could supply in 100 kg or 1000kg lots made into cabochons and these you could use to show what could be made from your stuff.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

I second Rock. Any lapidary would love to give this stuff a shot. Give a bucket to somebody competent, whom you'll find at local shows or local clubs, not thru a gemologist or jewelry shop. Then, if it takes a polish (and I hope it does... I love the color) you find an overseas lapidary outfit that will get it cut at a reasonable price.

yeah... this stuff looks better in sunlight, lol...





At any rate, Your suggestion in manufacturing cabs for display seems an appropriate route to take, when trying to overcome doubts about quality, so I'll look up the local lapidary society and see what they can, and will do...