Category
page 1Minerals in space group 217
tetrahedrite series
Tetrahedrite is a copper antimony sulfosalt mineral with the formula: . It is the antimony endmember of the continuous solid solution series with arsenic-bearing tennantite. Pure endmembers of the series are rarely if ever seen in nature. Of the two, the antimony rich phase is more common. Other elements also substitute in the structure, most notably iron and zinc, along with less common silver, mercury and lead. Bismuth also substitutes for the antimony site and bismuthian tetrahedrite or annivite is a recognized variety. The related, silver dominant, mineral species freibergite, although rar

tennantite
Tennantite is a copper arsenic sulfosalt mineral with an ideal formula . Due to variable substitution of the copper by iron and zinc the formula is . It is gray-black, steel-gray, iron-gray or black in color. A closely related mineral, tetrahedrite ) has antimony substituting for arsenic and the two form a solid solution series. The two have very similar properties and is often difficult to distinguish between tennantite and tetrahedrite. Iron, zinc, and silver substitute up to about 15% for the copper site.
kenoargentotetrahedrite-(Fe)
Freibergite is a complex sulfosalt mineral of silver, copper, iron, antimony and arsenic with formula . It has cubic crystals and is formed in hydrothermal deposits. It forms one solid solution series with tetrahedrite and another with argentotennantite. Freibergite is an opaque, metallic steel grey to black and leaves a reddish-black streak. It has a Mohs hardness of 3.5 to 4.0 and a specific gravity of 4.85 to 5. It is typically massive to granular in habit with no cleavage and an irregular fracture.
talnakhite
Talnakhite is a mineral of chalcopyrite group with formula: Cu9(Fe, Ni)8S16. It was named after the Talnakh ore deposit, near Norilsk in Western Siberia, Russia where it was discovered as reported in 1963 by I. Budko and E. Kulagov. It was officially named "talnakhite" in 1968. Despite the initial announcement it turned out to be not a face centered high-temperature polymorph of chalcopyrite, but to have composition Cu18(Fe, Ni)18S32. At to it decomposes to tetragonal cubanite plus bornite.
galkhaite
Galkhaite is a rare and chemically complex sulfosalt mineral from a group of natural thioarsenites. Its formula is , making the mineral the only known natural Cs-Hg and Cs-As phase. It occurs in Carlin-type hydrothermal deposits.
bicchulite
Bicchulite has an ideal chemical formula of , which was formularized from the hydrothermal synthesis of synthetic gehlenite (). Also, bicchulite was sighted in the mines of Japan with related minerals. This sodalite-type structured bicchulite has an uncommon ratio of aluminium to silicon, causing difficulties deciphering the structure. Because of bicchulite's structure it has a powdery texture, which leads to complications in obtaining information on the mineral's physical properties. Despite this problem, the color, specific gravity, and crystal size of bicchulite are known. Although bicchuli