Malachite egg (small)

Malachite, The Congo

This stuff is cool! Malachite kickstarted technology. The world we live in would be very different if malachite wasn't brightly coloured and easy to find.

People first started using malachite in the Neolithic. It is relatively soft and easy to grind. It makes a beautiful green pigment and is vibrant and brightly coloured. 

About a eight thousand years ago, humans learned how to make really hot furnaces. They discovered that it was possible to smelt malachite and extract copper. This is a relatively complex process. It's a bit of a mystery how the first metal workers knew that they could get a malleable metal from a green rock used for paint!

Once they discovered the process, there was no looking back. The technological advance lead to the copper age. Copper is a little too soft to make good tools. However if you smelt casseterite to make tin and add this to copper with a few other ingredients, you get an alloy called bronze. Bronze makes much tougher tools. 

Early metal workers learned a lot about smelting and furnaces and alloys. Eventually these techniques lead to the iron age. Modern technology might be very different if it wasn't for malachite.

All prices are per item. Photographs are representative of the items on offer, but the item you buy may not be the one in the photograph

Not only did it help kickstart technology 6,000 years ago, but has also been used in art since 

Copper can be found in its native form, i.e just as copper. However, it is not as readily abundant as malachite, which is a copper ore.

Once early humans learnt how to make furnaces, they had the technology to smelt malachite. The technology first became available about 6,00 years ago. Smelting is a relatively complicated process. No one knows how the first metal workers knew that they could get copper from a green stone! Once they discovered the process there was no stopping them. Most copper from the Copper and Bronze age comes from malachite.

Not only did malachite help kick start early technology, it was also used in early art. People started grinding malachite and using it as a pigment about 7,000 years ago. 

Although copper can be found in its native form (just copper) most commercially produced copper is derived from malachite. The main commericial source of malachite is currently the Congo, but is can be found in many places throughout the world, including parts of the Anti-Atlas region of Morocco, and Arizona in the USA. 

Average weight, 65g.All prices are per item. Photographs are representative of the items on offer, but the item you buy may not be the one in the photograph