Detailed information
Species
Ceruleite
Dimensions
30 x 47 x 24
mm
Weight
26 g
Locality
Wheal Gorland St. Day United Mines, Gwennap Cornwall, England
Condition
No recorded repairs
Ceruleite is a rare copper aluminium arsenate hydroxide hydrate which forms sky blue velvety crusts in post-mining environments either within mine dumps or underground in old mine tunnels. On a world scale it is a rare species but a concentration of localities occur around the village of St. Day in Cornwall. Ceruleite was first found in this area during the 1970s on the dumps at Wheal Gorland when they were being removed for reprocessing. Richard 'Dick' Barstow collected many fine specimens. The history of this miniature specimen is not documented other than a label from Jenny's Mineral Shop in Germany and the fact that it was in the superb systematic collection assembled by brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021) in Germany. The Ceruleite occurs as thin sky blue veinlets cutting through gossanous matrix.