centuries. Europeans however did not use malachite very much in medieval times, but it became very popular during the Renaissance. By the eighteenth century however, it had been replaced by synthetic green pigments. Japanese painters used the pigment even in this century on screen paintings. It is very rare to find Malachite in such a pigment form on the market today.
Malachite is mostly used for jewelry and ornamental purposes now, and is widely found in the form of cut and polished gemstones and figurines. It normally occurs in association with azurite, a blue colored stone. Large deposits can be found in the Ural Mountains of the former Soviet Union and in Zaire, Zimbabwe, and Chile. The stone is usually found in large masses banded with shades of green ranging from pale green to almost black.
Malachite was popular with the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans for malachite jewelry and amulets. It was also ground along with galena on slate palates. This powder mixed with water was painted on the eyelids. Malachite was being mined in the Sinai Peninsula in 4,000 BC.
Malachite is a secondary ore that occurs in the upper levels of copper deposits. The hydrothermal action of atmospheric agents on copper mineral outcrops has combined copper with solutions of carbonated water to produce malachite. It is the copper content of malachite that gives it a green (like tarnish) color. More water in the copper makes it lighter and less water makes it darker. The absence of water makes it black.
Crystals are rare, mostly dense, fibrous fine-crystalline aggregates. Malachite sometimes occurs in rounded (mamillated) nodules, botryoidal shapes, grape shapes, cone shapes, or stalactite and, rarely, encrusted slabs.
Malachite forms relatively quickly. Bronze objects have been found at ancient Assyrian sites partially or wholly converted into malachite. Grains of sand bound together by malachite particles are a further indicator that it forms quickly. This formation is known as "Wheal Leisure."
In fractures or when cut, malachite shows a banding of light and dark green with concentric rings, straight stripes, or oilier figurative shapes caused by its shell-like formation. The stratifications are curved (transverse to the length of the crystal), which are obviously successive layers of concretion, according to the outer surface of the mass.
As rough stone, it has a weak vitreous or mat luster; on fresh fractures and when polished, it has a silky luster. The cutter must work the malachite so as to show the decorative marking to its best advantage. Concentric eye-like rings are called malachite peacock's eye and are the most popular. Large mono-colored pieces are rare. In thin plates it is translucent otherwise it is opaque.
Today Shaba (Katanga) in Zaire is the most important malachite producer. Other deposits are in Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Australia (Queensland, New South Wales), Chile, France and Arizona and New Mexico in the USA. It is found almost everywhere in the form of small incrustations, together with azurite.
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