Malachite is one of the few stones where the colour is the metal. It is a copper carbonate, and the green is copper, oxidised and bound into the mineral. That also means malachite is a copper ore, and it was mined as one for thousands of years before anyone kept it for its looks. 

It forms where copper deposits are exposed to air and water over long periods, which is why it is found with azurite, another copper carbonate, and the two are frequently found as one stone.

The name is Greek, from molochitis, meaning mallow, after the plant leaf, and it was named for the colour. The other name it has carried is less flattering: Pliny called it pseudomalachite in one account, though the modern stone of that name is a different mineral altogether. 

What matters historically is how far back it goes. Malachite has been carved in Egypt, mined in the Sinai for eye paint, ground as a pigment for wall paint and illuminated manuscripts, and worked into ornaments in Russia, where the Ural deposits produced the material for some of the largest carved pieces ever made. The green pigment in old paintings is often malachite. So is the green on the Malachite Room of the Winter Palace.

Band structure is what makes a good piece, and it comes from the stone forming in layers as copper-bearing water ran over a surface again and again. Light and dark green band against one another, sometimes in tight rings and sometimes in broad, flowing sweeps that read like a landscape from above. 

Botryoidal material, with the rounded bubbly habit, is common and is often cut across to show the rings. On the hardness scale it sits at three and a half to four, which is soft and puts it in the same handling family as calcite and aragonite. It is also worth knowing that malachite sits alongside azurite in the rock, and where the two occur together it can weather or fracture along the join.

Traditionally associated with

Malachite has a long history, but it is a history of pigment, jewellery and architecture rather than of folklore in the sense the other stones on this site carry.

In the medieval period it was ground for paint rather than carried as a talisman. The protective associations attached to it in modern practice are a twentieth-century development, written once the stone had moved into the crystal trade. 

In modern terms it tends to be kept as a display piece, and because of the copper content it is more often kept on a shelf than carried.

How I'd keep it

This is the section that matters most. Malachite is a copper carbonate and it is toxic if dust from it is inhaled or swallowed, which is why anyone cutting or polishing raw malachite wears a respirator. A polished piece is safe to handle. A rough piece, a broken piece, or the dust from drilling or carving it is not, and it should be kept away from children and pets and handled with that in mind. 

Never use a sealant, a lacquer or a household cleaner on it. Never soak it, because it is slightly soluble in water and repeated washing dulls the surface and can leave it soapy to the touch. Clean it with a dry soft cloth, dust it with a dry brush, and keep it away from acids, bleach, ammonia and vinegar. 

Keep it out of direct sun. Because it is soft, a polished piece wants a spot where nothing harder will knock it, since malachite scratches easily and a scoured surface shows it.

What to watch for

Fakes are common and malachite is one of the easiest stones to fake well, which is why so much of it on the market is not stone. Reconstituted malachite is ground-up malachite powder mixed with resin and poured into a mould, and it gives itself away by banding that is too regular, too even and slightly blurry, with none of the tight rings of a cut piece. Painted or resin versions are also everywhere, and the tell is that a painted pattern sits flat on the surface and does not follow the contours of the stone. 

Genuine malachite banding is sharp, irregular and cut across the structure, so the rings tighten and spread the way they do in a real cut. A piece that is one flat, even green all over is almost certainly not malachite.

In the shop

The Malachite Dolphin at £30 is a carved piece in deep green with the banding running across the body. If you would rather wear it, there is the Malachite Ring With Leaf Detail at £85, set in stamped 925 sterling silver.