#chalcopyrite

[geologyin-blog]

Fantastic Rhodochrosite with Fluorite, Tetrahedrite, Chalcopyrite on Quartz from Steve’s Pocket, Sweet Home Mine, Colorado.

Photo: Thomas Spann Credit: Mineral Masterpiece

[reddpenn]

I love super colorful rocks/minerals like bismuth and quartz. Any others like them?

Chalcopyrite is pretty neat!

Also known as "peacock ore," chalcopyrite is an ore of copper. It doesn't come out of the ground with these rainbow colors; in nature it actually has a brassy color similar to pyrite! To get the rainbows to appear, it first has to be given an acid bath to strip off its outer layer. The newly exposed surface will quickly oxidize, forming a rainbow patina!

[lillianite]

Chalcopyrite, Sphalerite, Pyrite, Calcite – Huaron, Peru

[arataka-reigen]

Close up of crystal textures

[ghminerals]

Aesthetic Calcite with Chalcopyrite. Sweetwater mine, Viburnum Trend, Reynolds Co., Missouri, USA. Available direct. $1,600 plus ship. 24.0 × 18.0 x 5.0 cm (large-cabinet). Ships easily from Connecticut within the USA (no tariffs). Request a PayPal invoice.

[mymineralbox]

Chalcopyrite (CuFeS₂) is the most important copper ore on earth, and also the most likely sulfide to get mistaken for gold — but under a loupe it gives itself away. Pyrite forms sharp cubes; chalcopyrite forms these rounded, brassy blobs that slowly tarnish into rainbow iridescence as the surface oxidizes. This cluster from Jiangxi sits on a bed of drusy quartz, which is a common association — both minerals precipitate from hot hydrothermal fluids moving through fractures, just at slightly different points in the cooling sequence.

[spiderbee]

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I follow the youtuber geologist GneissName on patreon, and he sent out some ore samples. The green one is malachite, the gold/blue/purple one is chalcopyrite. They're very pretty!