Hemusite

Hemusite
Hemusite from Kawazu mine, Japan at The National Museum of Natural History, Bulgaria
General
Category	Sulfosalt minerals, Sulfides
Formula	Cu6SnMoS8
IMA symbol	Hm [1]
Strunz classification	2.CB.35a (10 ed) 2/C.09-10 (8 ed)
Dana classification	2.9.6.1
Crystal system	Isometric
Space group	P432 (no. 207), F43m (no. 216), or Fm3m (no. 225)
Identification
Color	gray
Mohs scale hardness	4
Luster	metallic
Diaphaneity	Opaque
Density	4.469
References	[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Hemusite (IMA symbol: Hm) is a very rare isometric gray mineral containing copper, molybdenum, sulfur, and tin with chemical formula Cu₆SnMoS₈. ^[2]

Discovery and occurrence

It was discovered by Bulgarian mineralogist Georgi Ivanov Terziev in 1963. He also described it and named it after Haemus, the ancient name of Stara planina (Balkan) mountains in Europe. The type locality is Chelopech copper ore deposit, Bulgaria. ^[4] Later tiny deposits of hemusite were found in Ozernovskoe deposit, Kamchatka, Russia; Kawazu mine, Rendaiji, Shimoda city, Chūbu region, Honshu Island, Japan; Iriki mine, Iriki, Satsuma-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu Region, Japan; Kochbulak deposit, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. ^[7] Hemusite occurs as rounded isometric grains and aggregates usually about 0.05 mm in diameter and in association with enargite, luzonite, colusite, stannoidite, renierite, tennantite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and other minerals.

See also

• List of minerals recognized by the International Mineralogical Association

References

1. Warr, L.N. (2021). "IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols". Mineralogical Magazine. 85 (3): 291–320. Bibcode:2021MinM...85..291W. doi: 10.1180/mgm.2021.43 . S2CID   235729616.
2. Terziev, G. (1971). "Hemusite – A Complex Copper-Tin-Molybdenum Sulfide from the Chelopech Ore Deposit, Bulgaria" (PDF). The American Mineralogist. 56 (11–12): 1847.
3. "Information about Hemusite". Webmineral Database.
4. "Information about Hemusite". Mindat Database.
5. "Information about Hemusite" (PDF). Handbook of Mineralogy.
6. "Hemusite". RRUFF Database.
7. "Information about Hemusite". Mineralienatlas Lexicon.

Further reading

• Shimizu, Masaaki; Kato, Akira; Matsubara, Satoshi (1988). "Hemusite and paraguanajuatite from the Kawazu mine, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan". Mineralogical Journal. 14 (3): 92. Bibcode:1988MinJ...14...92S. doi: 10.2465/minerj.14.92 .
• Gaines, Richard V.; Skinner, H. Catherine W.; Foord, Eugene E.; Mason, Brian; Rosenzweig, Abraham; King, Vendall (1997). Dana's New Mineralogy: The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana . New York, Chichester, Weinheim, Brisbane, Singapore, Toronto: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p.  93.