Altaite

Altait (deprecated Tellurblei, chemically lead telluride ) is a rarely occurring mineral from the mineral class of sulfides and sulfosalts. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system with the chemical composition and PbTe usually forms up to one centimeter compositions often small cubic or octahedral crystals of zinnweißer color.

Etymology and history

The mineral was first (now Kazakhstan ) and have been described in 1829 by Gustav Rose in the led by the Alexander von Humboldt expedition through Russia in the Sawodinskoi mine in the Altai Mountains. He called it first Tellurblei. Wilhelm Ritter von Haidinger named it in 1845 and gave it its present name after the site in the Altai Mountains, as were known in his time no other localities.

Classification

In the classification by Strunz Altait is classified in the sulfides and sulfosalts. It is counted among the sulfides with a ratio of metal to sulfur, selenium or tellurium of 1:1. In the eighth edition, it made with Alabandin, Clausthalite, Crerarit, galena, Keilit, Niningerit and oldhamite the unnamed group II/C.15. In the ninth edition, the sulfides are further subdivided according to cations, there is Altait find with these minerals and Cuboargyrit Schapbachit and in the subdivision of the metal sulfides with tin, lead, mercury and others.

In the classification of minerals according to Dana it forms with Alabandin, Clausthalite, Borovskit, Crerarit, galena, Keilit, Niningerit and oldhamite also the Galena Group ( isometric: Fm3m ) as a subgroup of sulfides - including selenides and tellurides - with the composition AmBnXp, with (m n): p = 1:1.

Education and Locations

Altait forms in gold and tellurium veins under hydrothermal conditions. It is associated with gold, silver, antimony, tellurium, Tellurantimon, galena, pyrite, hessite, nagyagite, tetrahedrite, sylvanite, petzite, Calaverit, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, Jamesonite, Boulangerite, Bournonite, Aguilarit, pyrrhotite, siderite, cerussite and quartz.

There are a total of 280 localities (August 2010) of the Altaits known. In addition to the type locality was found the mineral, among others in Sǎcǎrîmbu in Romania, Kalgoorlie in Australia, Fiji, Negros Occidental in the Philippines, Kirkland Lake in the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. states of Colorado, North Carolina, Montana, New Mexico, California and Minnesota.

Crystal structure

Altait crystallizes in the cubic crystal system with space group Fm3m with lattice parameters a = 6.439 Å and four formula units per unit cell ( sodium chloride structure).