Malachite on Crednerite

Specimens from the Torr Works quarry in Somerset, better known among collectors as Merehead quarry, are highly sought and this great miniature is a good example of acicular emerald-green malachite overgrowing metallic black plates of Crednerite, a copper-manganese oxide.  Micro-crystals of buttermilk-cream Calcite also coat some of the Crednerite and in turn this is criss-crossed by thin micro-crystalline strands of Malachite.  The matrix is a sooty black manganese ore mixed with Calcite, typical of the Mn-pods in which the complex mineralogy at this quarry is mainly found.