It occurs in association with atacamite, chrysocolla, connellite, cuprite, dioptase, goethite, malachite, plancheite, and tenorite.

There has been misunderstanding and misreporting of the mineral's crystal structure, due in part to a typographical error in O'Keeffe and Bovin's paper and the commonality of choosing an incorrect origin for the I41/amd space group.

[2] At the same time as O'Keeffe and Bovin's report, a paper by Datta and Jeffery determined a structure for the mineral based on the incorrect formula CuII12CuI4O14.

The reaction forms a deep blue complex of cupric ammonium that is converted to a residue of black oxide in the apparatus.

[11] The specimens were sold to Clarence M. Bement at fifty dollars apiece, and with his permission, were studied by George Augustus Koenig.

[10][11] Bement's collection, including the specimens of paramelaconite, were purchased by J. P. Morgan in 1900 and given to the American Museum of Natural History.

[5] In the early 1960s, the third known specimen of paramelaconite was discovered from the Copper Queen Mine; Koenig donated it to the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum.

Other specimens in the museum, labeled as originating from the Algomah Mine in Ontonagon County, Michigan, were also found to contain paramelaconite.