Malachite on Baryte

Collected in the Salts Level of Ecton mine, this is a very rich example of Ecton Hill Malachite. Ecton is within the South Pennine Orefield, but on its western margin, just outside Derbyshire, in the adjacent county of Staffordshire. The bright candy peppermint green Malachite almost totally covers an undulating matrix of white Baryte, forming a drusy coating of completely intergrown blades, crystalline and amorphous masses. Specimens from the Ecton mines cannot be said to be rare but are certainly not common and this is a most unusual and highly attractive example. It comes with the previous collector’s label, a well known and highly respected collector of English Midlands minerals.