Vulcanite
Vulcanite is a rare copper telluride mineral. The mineral has a metallic luster, and has a green or bronze-yellow tint. It has a hardness between 1 and 2 on the Mohs scale (between talc and gypsum). Its crystal structure is orthorhombic.
| Vulcanite | |
|---|---|
| General | |
| Category | Telluride mineral |
| Formula (repeating unit) | CuTe |
| Strunz classification | 2.CB.75 |
| Crystal system | Orthorhombic |
| Crystal class | Dipyramidal (mmm) H-M symbol: (2/m 2/m 2/m) |
| Space group | Pmnm |
| Identification | |
| Color | Pale to yellow bronze |
| Crystal habit | Massive, granular, tabular |
| Twinning | Common |
| Cleavage | [hk0] Good, [h0l] Indistinct |
| Fracture | Sectile - Curved shavings or scrapings produced by a knife blade |
| Mohs scale hardness | 1 - 2 |
| Luster | Metallic |
| Diaphaneity | Opaque |
| Specific gravity | 7.1 |
| Pleochroism | Very strong, bright yellow to blue-gray |
| Fusibility | 1.5 |
| References | [1][2][3][4] |
Vulcanite is named for the place where it was discovered in 1961, the Mammoth Good Hope Mine in Vulcan (ghost town and district), Gunnison County, Colorado.[3] Small deposits have also been discovered in Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Norway. It occurs with native tellurium, rickardite, petzite, and sylvanite.
See also
References
- http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/vulcanite.pdf Handbook of Mineralogy
- http://webmineral.com/data/Vulcanite.shtml Webmineral
- http://www.mindat.org/min-4213.html Mindat
- https://www.mineralienatlas.de/lexikon/index.php/MineralData?mineral=Vulcanite Mineralienatlas
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