Brochantite is a sulfate

Sulfate

In inorganic chemistry, a sulfate is a salt of sulfuric acid.-Chemical properties:...

 mineral

Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

, one of a number of cupric sulfates. Its chemical formula is CuSO₄·3Cu(OH)₂. Formed in arid climates or in rapidly oxidizing copper sulfide deposits, it is named for its discoverer, the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 and mineralogist, A. J. M. Brochant de Villiers (1772–1840).

Crystals of brochantite can range from emerald

Emerald

Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...

 green to black-green to blue-green, and can be acicular or prismatic. Brochantite is often associated with minerals such as malachite

Malachite

Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral, with the formula Cu2CO32. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses. Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms...

, azurite

Azurite

Azurite is a soft, deep blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. It is also known as Chessylite after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France...

, and chrysocolla

Chrysocolla

Chrysocolla is a hydrated copper silicate mineral with formula 2H2Si2O54·nH2O.-Properties:Chrysocolla has a blue-green color and is a minor ore of copper, having a hardness of 2.5 to 3.5.-Name and discovery:...

, and may form pseudomorphs with these minerals.

The mineral is found in a number of locations around the world, notably the southwestern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (especially Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

), Serifos

Serifos

Serifos is a Greek island municipality in the Aegean Sea, located in the western Cyclades, south of Kythnos and northwest of Sifnos. It is part of the Milos peripheral unit. The area is 75.207 km² and the population was 1,414 at the 2001 census. It is located about ESE of Piraeus...

 in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 and Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

.