A Copper included cube of Quartz inhabits a piece of float Copper
This will be a two part blog on the show today. The first blog (this One) is actually a continuation from yesterday, and later tonight I will post what we did today.
Quartz cluster in Float Copper
Many of you, including one person in particular, have been wondering what the special purchase was that I made yesterday from Keweenaw Gem and Gift. My friend Ken Flood the owner of KG&G had someone cutting a piece of float copper and they discovered an area that had quartz crystals imbedded in the native copper. Anyone who has cut copper knows how difficult it is to work with, especially float copper which is almost pure copper. Several slabs were made and small cabochons cut featuring the quartz crystals. In the photos shown the square one with the single quartz crystal is approximately 20mm square. The picture was taken with a light shining up through the crystal, showing a surprising cube with tiny copper inclusions. The other cabochon is approximately 20 x 24mm and has perfect quartz crystals that also have copper inclusions.
How rare is it to have Copper fill a vug full of Quartz Crystals? I have seen this in the past, but rarely pure Copper with beautiful Quartz. I know Copper in the Keweenaw filled volcanic voids as super heated copper-rich water, so it makes sense that Quartz-lined Vugs would also be filled. I’m happy for this occurance.
There are a few of these left, but some greedy person high graded them..sorry.
I can’t begin to tell you how rare these pieces are! Be in awe!