THE PROSPECTOR'S HANDBOOK. 



Silicate of Copper. 



Usually as an incrustation, massive, &c. 

 Colour bright green and bluish green. 

 H. 2-3 ; S.G. 2 to 2-3. 

 Contains 40 to 50 per cent, of oxide of copper. 



Is rather like malachite in colour, but when dissolved in 

 nitric acid a precipitate is left, whereas malachite is quite 

 dissolved. 



Malachite (green carbonate of copper). 



Found in botryoidal or stalactitic masses, and as ar 

 incrustation, &c. 



Structure fibrous. 



Nearly opaque. 



Colour emerald green. 



Streak a paler green than the colour. 



H. 3-5 to 4 ; S.G. 3-6 to 4. 



Contains about 57 per cent, of copper. 



Before the blowpipe it becomes blackish. With borax 

 before the B.F. it forms a green globule, and eventually 

 yields a copper bead. 



Completely dissolves in nitric acid, and so differs from 

 other ores of a similar appearance. 



The blue carbonate is very like the above ; but its crys- 

 tallization is a rhombic prism, and its streak bluish. 



It is impossible to enumerate more than a few of the 

 localities where copper ore is found and its manner of 

 occurrence. It occurs in rocks of every age and in both 

 lodes and deposits. The usual ore in a copper lode is 

 pyrites, which is decomposed into black oxide at the surface. 

 In Cornwall the copper lodes, which generally rim east and 

 west, are more productive in the slates than the granites. 

 The New Red Sandstone of Cheshire and Shropshire con- 

 tains certain deposits of copper, chiefly malachite : and 

 in the Carboniferous Limestone of Shropshire are also 

 deposits of the same ore as well as pyrites. Copper pyrites 

 veins traverse green slates and porphyritic rocks in the 

 north of England. Not to mention the variety of lodes 

 which run through rocks of various age of North America, 



