Tenorite

• Copper blackness

Tenorite, also outdated as copper ink, Schwarzkupfererz, Melaconit, Melakonit or chemically as copper ( II ) oxide is known, is a rarely occurring mineral from the mineral class of oxides and hydroxides. It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system with the chemical formula CuO and rare forms elongated crystals up to 2 mm in length, more often it is powdery, coarse or solid. The mineral is grayish black color, appears in translucent light brown in reflected light gray with a golden tint.

Etymology and history

Classification

In the classification by Strunz Tenorite is counted among the oxides with a ratio of metal to oxygen of 2:1 and 1:1. After the 8th edition forms a group together with Crednerit, delafossite, Mcconnellit and Paramelaconit. In the 9th edition it forms with its own subset of the oxides with a ratio of metal to oxygen of 1:1 and small to medium-sized cations.

In the classification by Dana, it forms a separate subgroup of the simple oxides with a cation charge of 2 .

Varieties

A variety of Tenorits, wherein the copper is present as a colloid, is Geltenorit. They found was the variety in Bisbee in the U.S. state of Arizona.

Education and Locations

Tenorite formed in the oxidative zone of copper deposits under hydrothermal conditions. More rarely, it can also be formed as a sublimation product in volcanoes. It is associated with cuprite, copper, chrysocolla, malachite and azurite, with formation under hydrothermal conditions, iron-manganese oxides, in education as a sublimate with copper and alkali metal chlorides and Cotunnit.

There are a plurality of localities known, but often in crystalline and pure form. Localities, among others, Mount Vesuvius and Etna in Italy, Cornwall and Lanarkshire in the UK, Rio Tinto in Spain, Siegen, Daaden and Neubulach in Germany, Jáchymov in the Czech Republic, Bogoslovsk, Nizhni Tagil and Tolbachik in Russia, Chuquicamata in Chile, Tsumeb in Namibia and Copper Harbor, Darwin and Bisbee in the United States.

Crystal structure

Tenorite crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, space group C2 / c ( Raumgruppen-Nr. 15) with the lattice parameters a = 4.69 Å; b = 3.43 Å, c = 5.14 Å and β = 99.5 °, and four formula units per unit cell.