Azurite-Malachite Rough

Azurite and Malachite are secondary copper minerals. Good quality lapidary rough in these materials are getting really hard to find. Modern mining practices dissolve all these beautiful minerals in order to get the most copper at the cheapest price. Unfortunately, we lose access to good lapidary material and mineral specimens and often our aquifers get polluted in the process. Ah, progress!

These materials generally take a good polish with tin oxide or diamond, followed with green rouge (Zam is a brand name for green rouge). Mohs hardness 3.5 to 4.0 for Azurite and Malachite. The Shattuckite from Wickenburg is highly silicated and has a Mohs hardness closer to 5.5 to 6.