The red on this one is doing something calcite and chrysocolla just can't fake on their own. Cuprite is cuprous oxide, and when it grows as clean transparent crystals instead of the usual dull earthy crust, it goes almost gemmy - old timers called the transparent stuff ruby copper for a reason. What actually stopped me scrolling was the habit. These aren't the textbook simple cubes cuprite gets known for in mineral guides. Look at the edges and you can pick out combination faces, cube modified by octahedron, giving that sharper multi faceted look instead of the rounded blocky cubes you get in a lot of Congo material. That kind of crisp faceting needs a slow, low disturbance pocket to form in, basically the opposite of an active industrial dig happening around it. That's the part worth sitting with here. This piece comes out of Mashamba West, inside the Sicomines copper cobalt project near Mutshatsha in Lualaba, so we're talking about a working industrial operation in the Congolese copperbelt, not some centuries-old classic locale everybody already has cataloged. Fine specimens from a site like this are basically a byproduct of mining schedules and access that can change overnight, which is exactly why the full locality string matters so much on the label. Anybody can call something a Congo cuprite. Being able to trace it to this specific mine, this specific project, this window in time, is what turns a pretty rock into a documented piece of the record. Fifty years from now the specimens with real locality data attached will be worth a lot more than the ones just tagged generic DRC. 3.5 cm main crystal on a 7 cm small cabinet piece, calcite riding along for good measure. Link in 🧵