Copper (hoppered "Spinel"-twins)

Here we have a beautiful, elongated "Spinel"-twinned Copper specimen from the 2019 discovery at the Rocklands Mine in Australia. The piece is complete on all sides with no damage anywhere, making it a "floater" with no point of attachment. The dichotomy between the elegantly well-formed octahedral crystals faces and the deep, repeating skeletal or "hoppered" lines is dramatic and eye-catching. The piece reminds me of a DNA helix with its twisting, narrow form combined with the ladder like "rungs" that which can be seen from multiple sides. One of my favorites for its elegance and beauty.

The Rocklands Mine (also known as the Rocklands Group Copper Project) is a large copper deposit in northwestern Queensland, Australia and wasn't known primarily for producing much in the way of specimens. We started to see some arborescent / dendritic specimens of Copper trickling out in 2017, but in 2019 there was a major discovery of significant and important CRYSTALLIZED Copper specimens! At the Tucson Show in 2020, we were fortunate to have a good friend who works at the mine and gave us first choice to hand select from a parcel that he brought especially for us.

Specimen # CUAUS72006