Blanchard mine caves, Bingham, New Mexico, USA
Speleothems: fragile crystals completely covering the cave walls
Other geologic settings: in the oxidized zones of copper and zinc deposits
Other occurrence: small, isolted crystals over calcite popcorn inside dry pools (a limestone cave in the Iglesias mining district, Sardinia, Italy)
Location within cave: all over the cave walls
First description of cave occurrence: Northrop, S.A. 1959. Minerals of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 665 pp
First description of non-cave occurrence: Böttger, T. 1839. Chemische Untersuchung des Aurichalcits, eines neuen Kupfererzes vom Altai. Annalen der Physik, Halle, Leipzig 48: 495
Other cave locations & References: a limestone cave in the Iglesias mining district, Sardinia, Italy - Forti, P. 1984. Le cavita naturali: un particolare ambiente di eccetionale interesse paleontologico e mineralogico. Not. Mineral. Palontol. 40: 5-14 Shopov's cave system, Bulgaria - Shopov, Y.Y. 1988. Bulgarian cave minerals. Bulletin of the National Speleological Society 50(1): 21-24
limestone with copper ore
Group: Carbonates
Chemical formula: (Zn,Cu)5(CO3)2(OH)6
[According to the official IMA-CNMNC List of Mineral Names (http://nrmima.nrm.se/imalist.htm)]
Deposition and stability: It derived from copper ore in the limestone
Color: pearly-green
Luster: pearly
on calcite
- Monoclinic