Bisbee

Bisbee, in the Mule Mountains of southern Arizona, is one of the most famous copper-mining districts in the world and a celebrated source of fine secondary copper minerals.

The Copper Queen and Lavender Pit

Bisbee's rich copper orebodies — worked from the 1880s through the Copper Queen mine and the great Lavender Pit — formed where copper sulfides oxidised near the surface, producing a spectacular suite of brightly coloured secondary minerals in the limestone host rock.

Signature minerals

Bisbee is best known for its intense blue azurite — 'Bisbee blue' is a benchmark for the species — together with green malachite, red cuprite and native copper. Fine azurite and azurite–malachite specimens from Bisbee are among the most prized of all American minerals.