Vulcanite
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This article is about the mineral vulcanite. For vulcanized rubber, see ebonite.
| Vulcanite | |
|---|---|
| General | |
| Category | Telluride mineral |
| Chemical formula | CuTe |
| Strunz classification | 02.CB.75 |
| Identification | |
| Color | Pale to yellow bronze |
| Crystal habit | Massive, granular, tabular |
| Crystal system | Orthorhombic - Dipyramidal (2/m 2/m 2/m) |
| 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] |
Vulcanite is a rare copper telluride mineral. The mineral has a metallic luster, and is a green or bronze-yellow shade. It has a hardness between 1 and 2 on the Moh's scale (between talc and gypsum). Its crystal structure is orthorhombic.
It is named after the place where it was discovered in 1961, the Good Hope Mine in Vulcan, Gunnison County, Colorado, USA.[3] Small deposits have also been discovered in Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Norway. It occurs with native tellurium, rickardite, petzite and sylvanite.
[edit] References
- ^ http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/vulcanite.pdf Handbook of Mineralogy
- ^ http://webmineral.com/data/Vulcanite.shtml Webmineral
- ^ a b http://www.mindat.org/min-4213.html Mindat
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