DeGrussa copper mineArticle | Updated 5 months ago Cu Christmas tree from DeGrussa Copper Mine WA Museum Cu Christmas tree from DeGrussa Copper Mine Image copyright WA Museum This copper specimen is from our Earth and Planetary Sciences department. Situated about 150 km north of Meekatharra in Western Australia, the DeGrussa copper deposit occurs in a sequence of submarine volcanic rocks which is around 2 billion years old. The primary mineralisation at DeGrussa is composed of copper, iron and zinc-rich sulfide minerals such as chalcopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite and sphalerite. Many millions of years after it formed, this ore was exposed at the Earth’s surface where the primary sulfides were transformed by the action of weathering processes to produce a colourful blanket of secondary minerals. Native copper formed at the top of the water table within this blanket of weathering.