Malachite

Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous or stalagmitic masses in fractures and deep underground spaces, where the water table and hydrothermal fluids provide the means for chemical precipitation. Individual crystals are rare, but occur as slender to acicular prisms. The name derives, via Latin and Middle French, from the Greek for mallow-green stone, because the mineral resembles the leaves of the mallow plant. In this atlas it is the mineral species that the gemstone malachite records.