Bursaite

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Bursaite
General
Category Sulfosalt mineral
Formula
(repeating unit)		Pb5Bi4S11
Strunz classification 2.JB.40a
Crystal system Orthorhombic
Intergrowth of two sulfosalts
Space group Bbmm
Identification
Formula mass 2177.65 g/mol
ColorGray to white
Crystal habit Prismatic crystals with platy, long grains
Twinning Lamellar twinning on (001), sometimes (110) plane
Cleavage Tabular on (100) - good
Mohs scale hardness2.5 - 3
Luster Metallic
Density 6.2 g/cm3 (calculated)
Optical propertiesOpaque; strong anisotropy
Birefringence Weak in air, stronger in oil.
Pleochroism Weak; whitish blue to brownish gray
Other characteristicsNot radioactive
References [1] [2] [3]

Bursaite is a sulfosalt of the lillianite family. It has the formula Pb5Bi4S11 and orthorhombic structure. Bursaite is named after Bursa Province, Turkey, where it was discovered. [1] It is generally located in regions rich in sulfur and commonly occurs alongside other sulfosalts. Its areas of formation are usually those that were once volcanogenic because it is generally aggregated with other minerals under intense heating. [4] It was officially delisted as a mineral in 2006, being cited as an intergrowth of two other sulfosalts. [5]

Contents

History

Bursaite was discovered in a contact zone between a set of marbles and granites amidst the Uludağ massif in Bursa, Western Turkey, by scientist Rasit Tolun in 1955. [1] Tolun was also the first to study the chemical composition of bursaite via flotation and superpanner tests. It was originally tested as an aggregate of a larger sulfosalt specimen. The flotation test involved sodium-based reagents and oils. The specimen was also chemically analyzed via X-ray spectroscopy and contained 4.24% pyrite, 4.78% blende, 5.48% bismuth and 85.3% Pb5Bi4S11. From these results, bursaite's composition was deduced as 45% Pb, 1% Ag, 38.5% Bi and 14.7% S. [1]

Bursaite is named after the Bursa Province of Turkey where it was discovered. [1] After much discussion of bursaite's credibility as a mineral, [6] it was eventually delisted as part of a mass discreditation of minerals. [5]

Structure

Bursaite's structure has not been well studied, and only basic structural information is known. Bursaite is an orthorhombic, dipyramidal mineral. Its symmetry is 2/m2/m2/m, space group Bbmm. [2] It was once believed to be monoclinic due to its high reflective power and its oblique extinction. [7]

The mineral contains ionic bonding between its lead and sulfur sites. Given the mineral's plate-like habit, it is likely bonded in sheets. It has the unit cell parameters of a = 13.399(20), b = 20.505(10), c = 4.117(5) and Z = [2]. These numbers yield an axial ratio a:b:c = 0.3078:1:1.5331. [2] The mineral displays strong pleochroism and weak anisotropy. [7]

Physical properties

Bursaite has a tabular, plate-like habit. It is composed of many prismatic crystals, which generally form along the [100] axis, intertwined with long, plate-like grains. The prismatic crystals can grow up to 4 mm in length, and can contain polycrystalline aggregates. Twinning is common in the crystal, usually in (001) planes. [2]

Although bursaite's color is usually gray, its weak pleochroism can give it a whitish-blue tinge, and its strong anisotropy yields colors ranging from blue to yellow. [2] Many hand samples of bursaite appear to be nearly identical to the mineral lillianite. [4]

In a microscope, bursauite shows distinct high reflective power and oblique extinction. [7] The reflectance values are Rγ' = ~43 and Rα' = ~38 (in nm). The birefringence is generally weak in air, but stronger when bursaite is immersed in oils. [3]

Bursaite has a hardness of 2.5 on the Mohs scale. It has a gray, metallic luster that appears white in polished sections. [2] The mineral is also known to have good tabular cleavage along the (100) planes. [8]

Occurrence

Like many sulfosalts, bursaite occurs in regions abundant in sulfur. Close to its discovery grounds, it commonly occurs in Uludağ, Turkey, around a metamorphic scheelite deposit near Bursa. It is also associated with the sulfide veinlets around the Shumilovsk deposit in Russia, the volcanogenic massive Cofer deposit in Virginia, and the American Southwest. It also occurs Czech Republic, Lipari Islands, Mexico and Sweden. [2]

Bursaite commonly occurs alongside other sulfosalts, such as sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, bismuth and scheelite. [7] It is usually formed in areas that were once volcanogenic, because of the general nature of sulfosalts and because bursaite is generally aggregated with other minerals under intense heat. [4]

Delisting

Bursaite was official delisted as a mineral as part of a mass discreditation of minerals. It was officially cited as an intergrowth of two sulfosalt phases. [5] Bursaite's status as a mineral was questioned almost from the time of its discovery. In 1956, Michael Fleischer of the American Mineralogist noted that bursaite's X-ray data shows many coincidences between those of the minerals kobellite and cosalite. [7] However, later studies showed that bursaite's characteristics are nearly identical to the mineral lillianite's. [4]

Bursaite's X-ray diffraction pattern is nearly identical to that of lillianite's, with only slightly more peaks than lillianite. This was eventually explained as a mixture of two orthorhombic phases in the mineral. [6] The two phases in bursaite unlike those in lillianite are two Bbmm phases that appear to be exsolution products of phase III, which is simply the synthetic analogue of lillianite. [4] Given this information, it was inferred that bursaite is an intergrowth of two sulfosalt phases, derived from lillianite. [9]

Related Research Articles

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Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula (Zn,Fe)S. It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in sedimentary exhalative, Mississippi-Valley type, and volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. It is found in association with galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite, calcite, dolomite, quartz, rhodochrosite, and fluorite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulfosalt mineral</span> Complex sulfide minerals of a metal and a semi-metal, broad sense; after Moëlo, Y et al. (2008)

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1-x(Mn,Mg,Al)
6O
12·3-4H
2O. It was named in 1934 for the type locality, the Todoroki mine, Hokkaido, Japan. It belongs to the prismatic class 2/m of the monoclinic crystal system, but the angle β between the a and c axes is close to 90°, making it seem orthorhombic. It is a brown to black mineral which occurs in massive or tuberose forms. It is quite soft with a Mohs hardness of 1.5, and a specific gravity of 3.49 - 3.82. It is a component of deep ocean basin manganese nodules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boulangerite</span> Sulfosalt mineral: lead antimony sulfide

Boulangerite is an uncommon monoclinic orthorhombic sulfosalt mineral, lead antimony sulfide, formula Pb5Sb4S11. It was named in 1837 in honor of French mining engineer Charles Boulanger (1810–1849), and had been a valid species since pre-IMA. It was first described prior to 1959, and is now grandfathered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Djurleite</span> Copper sulfide mineral

Djurleite is a copper sulfide mineral of secondary origin with formula Cu31S16 that crystallizes with monoclinic-prismatic symmetry. It is typically massive in form, but does at times develop thin tabular to prismatic crystals. It occurs with other supergene minerals such as chalcocite, covellite and digenite in the enriched zone of copper orebodies. It is a member of the chalcocite group, and very similar to chalcocite, Cu2S, in its composition and properties, but the two minerals can be distinguished from each other by x-ray powder diffraction. Intergrowths and transformations between djurleite, digenite and chalcocite are common. Many of the reported associations of digenite and djurleite, however, identified by powder diffraction, could be anilite and djurleite, as anilite transforms to digenite during grinding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aguilarite</span>

Aguilarite is an uncommon sulfosalt mineral with formula Ag4SeS. It was described in 1891 and named for discoverer Ponciano Aguilar.

Atheneite is a rare palladium, mercury arsenide mineral with the chemical formula (Pd,Hg)3 associated with palladium–gold deposits. Its composition parallels that of arsenopalladinite, isomertieite and meritieite-II.

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Xilingolite is a lead sulfide mineral with formula Pb3Bi2S6. It has a hardness of 3, a metallic luster, and usually exhibits a lead-grey color. It is a dimorph of lillianite, exhibiting increased Pb-Bi order and decreased symmetry.

Madocite is a mineral with a chemical formula of Pb17(Sb,As)16S41. Madocite was named for the locality of discovery, Madoc, Ontario, Canada. It is found in the marbles of the Precambrian Grenville Limestone. It is orthorhombic and in the point group mm2. Its crystals are elongated and striated along [001] to a size of 1.5 mm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dyscrasite</span> Silver antimonide mineral

The silver antimonide mineral dyscrasite has the chemical formula Ag3Sb. It is an opaque, silver white, metallic mineral which crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system. It forms pyramidal crystals up to 5 cm (2.0 in) and can also form cylindrical and prismatic crystals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semseyite</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ardaite</span>

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Segnitite is a lead iron(III) arsenate mineral. Segnitite was first found in the Broken Hill ore deposit in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. In 1991, segnitite was approved as a new mineral. Segnitite has since been found worldwide near similar locality types where rocks are rich in zinc and lead especially. it was named for Australian mineralogist, gemologist and petrologist Edgar Ralph Segnit. The mineral was named after E. R. Segnit due to his contributions to Australian mineralogy.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Rasit, T. (1954-55) A study on the concentration tests and beneficiation of the Uludag tungsten ore Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine . Bull. Mineral Research and Exploralion Inst. Turkey, Foreign Ed., No. 46-47, 106-127.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Anthony, J.W., Bideaux, R., Bladh, K., Nichols, M. Bursaite. (2003) Mineral Data Publishing.
  3. 1 2 Kraeff, A. (1973) Reflectance Values And Microhardness Tests of Bursaite Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine . Mineral Research and Exploration Institute of Turkey, Ankara.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Borodaev, Y., Garavelli, A., Garbarino, C, Grillo, S, Mozgova, N, Uspenskaya, T. A Rare Sulfosalts from Volcano. (2001) The Canadian Mineralogist, 39 1383-1396.
  5. 1 2 3 Burke, E. (2006). "A Mass Discreditation of GQN Minerals" (PDF). The Canadian Mineralogist. 44 (6): 1557–1560. doi:10.2113/gscanmin.44.6.1557. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  6. 1 2 Jambor, J., Burke, E. (1989) New Mineral Names. American Mineralogist, 74 1399-1404.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Fleischer, M. (1956) New Mineral Names. American Mineralogist, 41 671.
  8. ↑ Fleischer, M. (1972) New Mineral Names. American Mineralogist, 57 325-329.
  9. ↑ Neues Jahrb. (1988) Mineral, Abh. 158
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