Berthierite

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Berthierite
Berthierite-224182.jpg
Berthierite from the Herja Mine (Kisbánya), Baia Mare, Maramures County, Romania
Size: 16.7 × 10.0 × 8.5 cm
General and classification
chemical formula FeSb 2 S 4
Mineral class
(and possibly department) 		Sulfides and sulfosalts - sulfosalts
System no. to Strunz
and to Dana 		2.HA.20 ( 8th edition : II / E.01)
07/03/09/03
Crystallographic Data
Crystal system orthorhombic
Crystal class ; symbol rhombic-dipyramidal; 2 / m 2 / m 2 / m
Space group Pnam
Lattice parameters a  = 11.44  Å ; b  = 14.12 Å; c  = 3.76 Å
Physical Properties
Mohs hardness 2 to 3
Density (g / cm 3 ) 4 to 4.7
Cleavage good after {010}
Break ; Tenacity uneven
colour steel gray
Line color brownish gray
transparency opaque
shine Metallic luster

Berthierit obsolete as iron stibnite , Martourit , Anglarit or Chazellit known is a rarely occurring mineral from the mineral class of the sulphides and sulfosalts , specifically a sulfur salt with the chemical composition FeSb 2 S 4 . It crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system and develops mostly long, prismatic and longitudinally striped crystals , but also fibrous, felty and radial-rayed aggregates in steel-gray color, which after a while turn brown to brightly colored.

Due to the similarity of names, there is a risk of confusion with the iron-aluminum silicate Berthierin .

Special properties

From a chemical point of view, berthierite is a compound of iron sulphide ( iron (II) sulphide ) with antimony sulfur ( stibnite ).

In front of the blowtorch , berthierite can easily be melted into black, magnetic slag.

Etymology and history

The mineral was first found in 1827 by the French mineralogist Pierre Berthier in the type locality Chazelles in the Haute-Loire department in France . He initially named it after Wilhelm Ritter von Haidinger Haidingerit , but since this name had already been assigned to another mineral, Haidinger named it after the discoverer.

classification

In the Strunz system , berthierite is classified among the sulfides and sulfosalts. It is counted among the sulfo salts. In the eighth edition , it formed a group with Garavellit and Klerit . In the ninth edition, it is one of the sulfosalts with tin (II) sulfide as a model, which contain copper , silver or iron , but no lead .

In the systematics of minerals according to Dana , berthierite forms the galenobismutite subgroup of sulfosalts with galenobismutite , sakharovaite , garavellite and klerite with the ratio z / y = 2 and the composition (A + ) i (A 2+ ) j [B y C z ], A = metals, B = semi-metals, C = non-metals.

Education and Locations

Berthierit deposited at relatively low temperature of hydrothermal solutions especially in lead - deposits from.

Locations include Jujuy and Santa Cruz in Argentina ; New South Wales , Tasmania and Victoria in Australia ; La Paz and Oruro in Bolivia ; Blagoevgrad Oblast in Bulgaria ; Bräunsdorf / Freiberg in Germany ; Cornwall and Cumbria in England ; Auvergne and Alsace in France ; British Columbia , New Brunswick , Ontario, and Québec in Canada ; Burgenland , Carinthia , Salzburg and Tyrol in Austria ; Herja in Romania ; Matabeleland South and Midlands in Zimbabwe ; Poproč in Slovakia ; Bohemia , Kutná Hora and Moravia in the Czech Republic ; as well as in various states of the USA .

Crystal structure

Berthierite crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system with the space group Pnam . The values ​​of the lattice parameters are a = 11.44  Å ; b = 14.12 Å and c = 3.76 Å.

use

Berthierite is used locally as a raw material for the extraction of antimony .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Webmineral - Berthierite (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d Paul Ramdohr , Hugo Strunz : Textbook of Mineralogy . 16th edition. Ferdinand Enke Verlag 1978, ISBN 3-432-82986-8 (p. 474)
  3. ↑ Stefan Weiß: The large Lapis mineral directory . 4th edition. Christian Weise Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-921656-17-6
  4. ↑ Pierre Berthier: The berthierite, a new mineral species. In: Annalen der Physik , 1827, 11, pp. 478-482 ( full text ).
  5. ^ List of minerals according to Dana at webmineral.com
  6. ↑ MinDat - Berthierite, localities (English)

literature

  • Petr Korbel, Milan Novák: Encyclopedia of Minerals . Nebel Verlag GmbH, Eggolsheim 2002, ISBN 3-89555-076-0 (p. 53)

Web links

Commons : Berthierit  - collection of images, videos and audio files