Azurite: Properties, Facts and Photos

What is Azurite?

Azurite is a rich blue mineral found in copper ore deposits. It often occurs close to malachite.

Azurite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral that forms when copper-bearing rocks oxidise. During this process, copper reacts with oxygen, water, and carbon dioxide over time. So azurite doesn't form from native copper that's oxidised, it forms as a result of the oxidation of copper ores.

Wherever azurite occurs, malachite is rarely far away. Both can also occur together as one combined mineral, known as azurite-malachite.

Prized for its impressive blue colour, azurite is known to have been mined in ancient Egypt. It was mostly ground down to be used as a pigment.

Azurite was the most important blue pigment during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Over time and under the right conditions, it slowly turns into malachite in a process known as pseudomorphism. For this reason, the blue colour in some paintings from these periods is now a shade of green.

Azurite is sought after by mineral collectors and widely used as a gemstone. It's also known as chessylite after the region in France where it was first identified. However, the name is rarely used. 

In ancient Egypt and on the mythical island of Atlantis, azurite was believed to have psychic abilities. For this reason, it has a long history of being used to strengthen psychic powers.

Although popular as a gemstone, azurite is very soft. On the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, which measures the scratch resistance of one stone against another, it grades 3.5 to 4.

Most of the world's supply of azurite originates from France, Australia, Russia, Chile, Peru, and the United States.

Article Pictures

The azurite mineral in our photo at the top of the page is from Gila County, Arizona. The second piece is from central Australia. Photos courtesy of Stan Celesian.

Both images are clickable and redirect to the original photo.

Pop-up photos: Copper - Courtesy of Stan Celestian.