Malachite is copper carbonate hydroxide, a distinctive, vivid green mineral with different shaded bands. It is popular with collectors and can be carved into many shapes, including spheres, dishes, and figurines. Precious gemstone malachite occurs in amorphous-looking masses, sometimes as encrustations over or combined with other minerals, such as azurite or chrysocolla. It is always found near copper ore deposits. In the southwestern states of the USA, it is often set in jewelry as an alternative to turquoise.
Precious gemstone malachite is an opaque, banded stone, whose colorful bands range from a very light green to almost deep green, and may be curved or angular. This mineral is a copper carbonate, as is blue azurite. Malachite derives its name from Greek word malache, meaning “mallow” (a group of related plants with broad green leaves), which is a reference to its color.
The availability of massive forms of precious gemstone malachite has led to its large-scale use in impressive buildings, such as the hermitage Palace, now a museum in St. Peterburg, Russia. There, the malachite Room was given its name because of the stone features in the floors and pillars, and it includes a large, solid malachite vase.
Precious gemstone malachite is often cut en cabochon, to display its characteristics banding. It may also be cut as beads, carved, and used for inlays. It is sometimes cut with an associated mineral such as azure-malachite and sometimes along with chrysocolla. Tumbled stones of precious gemstone malachite are extremely popular and equally common.
Archeological evidence shows that copper ore and associated minerals including precious gemstone malachite, were mined from around six thousand years ago at Timna, near Eilat in Israel. Excavations of the ancient workings there date back as far as the late Neolithic period. In powdered form, this exotic natural gemstones, precious gemstone malachite and lapis lazuli were used as eye shadow by the Ancient Egyptians, and also as pigments in paint right up to the eighteenth century.
Crystals sometimes form as needles that spread out from the host rock in which they are embedded, or as pseudomorphs (false shapes) after other minerals. More often, malachite forms as a mass with evenly spaced, circular bands of pale and deep green. Precious gemstone malachite comes in many forms including thick sheets, large knobs, and green crusts. The massive carvable forms of malachite are its most familiar, while crystalline forms are more unusual. Precious gemstone malachite is usually found with azurite, a blue secondary mineral of copper. Although its energetic green coloring is different, the properties of precious gemstone malachite are very similar to those of azurite, and aggregates of the two minerals are often found together. A mineral sample can have alternating bands of green malachite and blue azurite. Precious gemstone malachite is, however, more common than azurite and is most often found with copper deposits associated with limestone, the source of the carbonate.
