Catalog Search Guide
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Atacamite
Atacamite is a copper chloride hydroxide, Cu2Cl(OH)3, prized by collectors for its vivid, saturated green color ranging from emerald to dark blackish-green, with distinct pleochroism and a slender, striated, often crystalline habit unlike the massive botryoidal form typical of its close relative malachite. First described in 1802 from the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, it takes its name directly from this hyper-arid region, where oxidizing conditions, abundant copper sulfide deposits, and chloride-rich saline brines combine to produce one of the world's classic secondary copper mineral suites. It forms as a supergene alteration product of primary sulfides such as chalcopyrite, bornite, and chalcocite, and is polymorphous with botallackite, clinoatacamite, and paratacamite, all members of the wider atacamite group.
The type locality remains the benchmark for the species: Chilean mines including Chuquicamata, Remolinos, La Farola Mine in the Atacama Region, Carrizal, Copiapó, and Tierra Amarilla have all yielded fine specimens, with atacamite historically serving as a significant copper ore at Chuquicamata itself. Outside Chile, the most exceptional crystals — some exceeding 20 cm — come from the New Cornwall Mine near Kadina, South Australia, alongside the nearby Wallaroo and Moonta ore fields, long famous among Australian mineral collectors. Other notable occurrences include the Clara Mine in the Black Forest, Germany, Mina Santa Bárbara in Almería, Spain, the Kamariza Mines of Lavrion, Greece, and deposits in Namibia and Peru, while atacamite is also documented as a weathering product of ancient bronze artifacts and as a sublimate around submarine black smokers and fumaroles.
Collectors seek atacamite for its striking crystal aesthetics, its scientific value in illustrating polymorphism alongside clinoatacamite and botallackite, and its relative scarcity compared to more common secondary copper minerals like malachite and chrysocolla, with which it is often found intergrown or pseudomorphed. Sharp, lustrous, well-terminated crystals on matrix — particularly Chilean and Australian material — remain highly desirable in systematic and aesthetic mineral collections alike, valued both as striking display pieces and as textbook examples for teaching crystallography, geochemistry, and supergene copper mineralization.
