Detailed information
Dimensions
62 x 79 x 17
mm
Locality
Cligga Mine, Cligga Head Perranzabuloe, Cornwall England
Condition
No recorded repairs
A weathered plate of mottled Cligga Head granite, its top surface richly coated with deep green-teal-blue Botallackite crystals from the shoreline adjacent to Cligga mine at Perranzabuloe, Cornwall. Copper bearing lodes traverse the beach at this point and in rock pools the action of chloride-rich sea water has reacted with the copper. Botallackite is a copper oxychloride whose type locality is south west of Cligga, in the Wheal Cock section of Botallack mine near St Just, Cornwall. This rare find was made by Cornish miner dealer Mike Merry and due to the scarcity of this species it became an instant classic. The Botallackite forms highly lustrous platy crystals to just a few millimetres, but in such profusion, they form a continuous mat. A great specimen of this rare species.
