What is another name for malachite?
Malachite – green copper bicarbonate. Possibly taking its name from the Greek word “molocha”, meaning “mallow”, the color of malachite is similar to the color of the mallow leaf.
Alternatively, the name may have originated from another Greek word, “malako”, meaning “soft”, due to the stone’s softness and pliability when worked compared to other minerals. Malachite often has distinctive concentric bands in different shades of green, making it a unique gemstone. Eye rings are the most popular groups, and malachite with this design is known as the “peacock’s eye”. Malachite is a product of the interaction of demineralized groundwater with copper ores. Saturated solutions, filling karst cavities, cracks, crevices and caves, give sediment. Depending on the concentration and diversity of elemental composition, precipitated malachites can take very unusual forms.
Malachite is found in other stones – in azur-malachite, in the Eilat stone (King Solomon’s stone). The largest Russian malachite deposits, where blocks weighing more than 20 tons were discovered, are practically exhausted. Currently, most malachite is mined in Zaire, Australia, Chile, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Arizona. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans wore malachite in amulets to provide protection against the evil eye, and in the Middle Ages it was used to protect children from witches and black magic. In fact, malachite was believed to warn its owner of impending danger by breaking into pieces. Therefore, it is believed that malachite has protective properties. Some say that malachite reflects the wearer’s feelings, so it is best to wear it while feeling positive. In traditional Hindu belief systems, malachite balances the heart chakra, helps support emotional needs and effectively influence emotions. The most famous malachite is part of the interior decoration of the “Malachite Room” in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. The room was designed by Alexander Bryullov as a reception room for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (wife of Nicholas 1) in the 1830s. The rich malachite room features decorative columns, vases and fireplaces finished in malachite. In the online store rosary.su You can always buy and order quality malachite rosary at the best price.
Photo of malachite stone
 Malachite, Namibia |  Malachite, Greece |  Malachite, Congo |
 Malachite, Italy |  Malachite, Congo |  Malachite, Congo |
 Malachite, Congo |  Malachite, Congo |  Malachite, Namibia |
 Malachite, Portugal |  Malachite, USA |  Malachite+Azurite, Congo |
Malachite, Congo
Malachite is a mineral, the main carbonate of copper. It got its name from the Greek word “malakos” – “soft”. According to another version, the name comes from the Greek “malhe”, which means “grass”.
Properties.
Monoclinic system, green color of different shades; The luster is different, depending on the composition: glassy for crystals or silky for fine-fibered aggregates and pieces. When heated in a flask, it releases water and turns black. It is characterized by solubility in acids with the release of carbon dioxide, as well as in ammonia, which turns a beautiful blue color.
Forms of location.
Well-formed crystals are very rare and always small, have a columnar, lamellar, needle-like appearance, and tend to split to form bundles, fluffy balls, spherocrystals, spherulites, spheroidolites and spheroidolite dendrites. Usually forms kidney-shaped fine-fibrous spherulite aggregates with a radial-radiating structure and concentric-zonal texture, spheroidolite bunch-shaped dendrites, pseudostalactites. Also leafy, dense or earthy, sometimes in the form of parallel columnar aggregates (Dzhezkazgan deposit). The most characteristic and well-known are spherulitic fine-fibrous concentric-zonal kidney-shaped forms of aggregates. They grow from highly supersaturated nonequilibrium solutions.
Finding and origin.
A characteristic mineral of near-surface oxidation zones of copper ore and polymetallic hydrothermal deposits, it is also formed during supergene processes. Distributed in the oxidation zone of copper sulfide, polymetallic and some copper-iron ore deposits occurring in limestone, dolomite, and calcareous shales. It is formed as a result of the interaction of solutions of copper sulfates arising during the oxidation of chalcopyrite and other copper sulfides with carbonates or carbon dioxide waters. It constantly accompanies various copper ores, being a product of their weathering, due to which it often forms pseudomorphs after chalcopyrite, minerals from the group of fahlores, cuprite, etc. Pseudomorphoses of malachite after azurite are typical. Due to the ease of its formation, malachite covers ancient bronze objects found during archaeological excavations.
Place of Birth.
Quite common, but found in large masses in few areas; in Russia, the first place belongs to the Mednorudyansky mine (near Nizhny Tagil); then to Gumeshevsky (now almost completely worked out), from which a huge block of malachite weighing almost one and a half tons was extracted, located in the Leningrad Mining Institute. Malachite is also known from other deposits of the Urals, as well as in Altai and Kazakhstan (Dzhezkazgan, Chokpak, etc.). Currently, the industrial development of Ural malachite has been stopped. In Western Europe, it is found in Chessy (near Lyon), Cornwall, Retzbania, the Harz, etc. Jewelry-quality malachite is mined in large quantities in the Congo and Zaire (South Africa). Now the main source of malachite for jewelry and finishing work is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A characteristic feature of African malachite is small regular concentric rings (in contrast to the irregularly shaped rings of Ural malachite) with a more contrasting alternation of light and dark zones. Associated minerals: azurite, goethite, limonite, chalcopyrite, cuprite, bornite, native copper, tetrahedrite, chalcocite, elite (pseudomalachite), brochantite.
Application
Dense varieties of good color and with a beautiful pattern are valued quite expensively and are used as an ornamental stone for making vases, inlays (lining tables, caskets and other luxury items), as well as cabochons for inserts into small jewelry. Natural pigment is prepared from fine crumbs.
From the history of malachite.
- Russia
- Kazakhstan
- Congo
- South Africa
