Vulcanite
Copper telluride mineral
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 | |
|---|---|
Vulcanite from Good Hope Mine, Colorado, U.S. | |
| General | |
| Category | Telluride mineral |
| Formula | CuTe |
| IMA symbol | Vul[1] |
| 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 | [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.[4] Small deposits have also been discovered in Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Norway. It occurs with native tellurium, rickardite, petzite, and sylvanite.
