Detailed information
Species
Kolwezite
Dimensions
48 x 57 x 30
mm
Weight
67 g
Locality
Mashamba West Mine Kolwezi mining district Lualaba, DR Congo
Condition
No recorded repairs
The extremely rare copper cobalt carbonate hydroxide Kolwezite, as the names suggests, was first described from the Kolwezi mining district in the Democratic Republic of Congo and although the list of known localities has grown to about fifteen, the majority, and particularly the only well-crystallized specimens, come from a small area near the town of Kolwezi. One of these, Mashamba West mine has produced arguably the richest and showiest of specimens of this species. This large miniature, matrix-less specimen from a recent find at Mashamba West mine displays its classic form, as intergrown, velvety, olive-green, botryoidal aggregates, the largest of which reaches 2.7 cm in diameter. There are a couple of marks on the velvety surface of Kolwezite but it is unclear if these are abrasions or natural imperfections during their growth, but this remains a very large and significant pure aggregate of this unusual species for which the DR Congo hold the monopoly in fine specimen occurrences.