Around the turn of the century, miners extracting copper at various sites in Bisbee, Ariz., tunnelled into cavernous rooms whose walls were lined with malachite in layers as much as four feet thick and whose roofs were dotted with stalactites of this green, patterned mineral.
What happened next was like a scene from a mineral lover’s worst nightmare. Only in this case, the scene kept repeating itself, as if trying to change its tragic, inevitable outcome.
To no avail. Time after time, the copper-rich malachite was crushed and smelted for its metal content. Miners who knew the importance of what they found could do nothing to save this mineral treasure. “Those caught hiding malachite were fired on the spot,” says John Garsow of New Era Minerals, Grass Valley, Calif. “The mining companies cared only about copper.”
So it went most everywhere malachite was found, with one notable exception: Czarist Russia, where malachite was highly prized for wall-covering and place-setting use. Elsewhere it was, and is, a far different story, as anyone familiar with Anaconda’s and Dodge Phelps U.S. copper mining operations can tell you.
Nevertheless, since the late 19th century, there has been enough malachite for artisans to fashion into finely wrought objects—boxes, jewel cases and bowls, for example. Often these objects feature delicate inlay work that can require thousands of slivers and hundreds of hours to complete, especially when the end result is something like a table top.
Recently, a painstaking form of inlay work called “intarsia” that involves fitting pieces of combined minerals together to make intricate designs has helped to elevate the status of malachite and to renew craftsmen and designer interest in it. Two intarsia masters in particular, Jim Kaufman and Nicolai Medvedev, have become toasts of the gem and mineral world, attracting considerable attention to their malachite chests and pendants and inspiring use of malachite inlays in custom jewelry by mainstream designers and manufacturers.
Now, just when malachite is reaching perhaps its greatest popularity ever, supplying the demand has begun to take a heavy toll on supply. “The news from Zaire [the largest producer of malachite] is that top grades are very scarce,” says Atlanta gem dealer Tim Roark, who first broke into the trade selling malachite. What’s behind the sudden shortage?
The African Connection
It’s an error to think that where there’s copper there’s always malachite (whose name is derived from the Greek word malow, an herb with dark green leaves). This copper carbonate forms, often along with a deep indigo-blue fellow carbonate called azurite, in the oxidized levels of certain copper bodies, generally as the result of water seeping down through the earth’s surface and causing, as John Sinkankas writes in his book “The Gemstones of North America,” “copper sulfides and accessory minerals to be converted into a variety of new species.” But even where there’s malachite, it doesn’t mean it is suitable for fashioning into jewelry cabochons, beads or art objects.
Although Arizona, Utah, Chile, Russia and France, among others, produce malachite, Africa is presently responsible for most of the world’s artisan- and jewelry-grade material. One copper belt in particular, stretching from a section of Zambia that was formerly a part of Rhodesia through a section of Zaire, has been the mineral’s main source for most of our century. Most of this malachite comes in partially fashioned form since Zaire forbids unworked rough from being exported.
Interestingly, we have Cecil Rhodes, the founder in 1888 of the De Beers diamond monopoly, to thank for the long abundance of malachite. Late in the 19th century, Rhodes, who was then the British colonial administrator, obtained concessions to develop the Belgian Congo’s mammoth copper deposits. By 1910, the team Rhodes assembled for this job, led by engineering geologist Robert Williams, had built a railroad to haul coal for the smelting furnaces into the Kolwezi area (and had organized full-scale open pit) mining operations there.
Now, some dealers worry, the most productive of the more than 30 deposits in Zaire, the Musonoï mine especially, may be past their prime. “As the oxide zone in the upper levels of the … mines is worked out, fewer top quality crystal specimens will appear,” wrote Peter Bancroft prophetically in his comprehensive 1984 book, “Gem and Crystal Treasures,” “Mine staff mineralogists predict … shortages of malachite.” Apparently, these predictions are now coming true. And unless mines are expanded, the shortages will become even more acute.
Filling the Voids
Of all the many malachite-producing areas in the world, only one, the copper-lead-zinc deposit in Tsumeb, Namibia (the vast body left behind Southwest Africa), might begin to fill the void left by declining output of malachite in Kolwezi, Zaire. But don’t count on it for too much. Although the Tsumeb mine is a treasure trove of crystallized minerals, producing superb specimens some 150 species, its malachite (often combined with azurite) is usually more suitable for specimen collectors than cutters or artisians.
So Zaire remains the sole hope of the world as far as future production of malachite for art objects goes. Virtually assured of sales for their exquisite malachite works in thriving European and Asian markets, artisans in Italy and Germany are willing to outbid their U.S. counterparts for the rapidly shrinking supply of fine material.
As of mid-1992, prices for top-grades of malachite have almost doubled from $15 to $25 per pound to $25 to $40 per pound—with no let-up in sight. Firms like New Era that specialize in fine grades of malachite rough have almost no stock whatsoever and are scrounging for more. “Stuff represented to us as Grade A usually turns out to be our Grade B and C,” Garsow complains, and the cost to him for his sub-premium grade is what he used to get for his Grade A rough more than a year ago.
Just what constitutes genuine Grade A malachite? Fine material has minimal or no pitting and dramatic banding, bubble or flower patterns. Be aware that lesser material with gouges and holes is often filled with an epoxy adhesive (detectable under magnification) to mask these defects. Top stuff is untreated. Although malachite is soft, with a hardness of 4 on the Mohs Scale, “it is tough and takes an exceptional polish,” says Sy Arnstein of Walter Arnstein Inc., New York. Beads and cabochons abound and represent real bargains.
Please note: this profile was originally published in 1992 in Modern Jeweler’s ‘Gem Profiles/2: The Second 60’, written by David Federman with photographs by Tino Hammid.
The malachite shown in the header image is 2 7/8 inches in diameter. It is courtesy of Pala International, Fallbrook, Calif.
