Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

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  Hansblockite, (Cu,Hg)(Bi,Pb)Se2, the monoclinic polymorph of grundmannite: a new mineral from the Se mineralization at El Dragón (Bolivia)

  Foerster, HJ; Bindi, L; Stanley, CJ; Grundmann, G (Cambridge University Press, 2017-06)

  Hansblockite, ideally (Cu,Hg)(Bi,Pb)Se2, is a new selenide from the El Dragón mine, Bolivia. It typically occurs in thin subparallel plates intergrown with two unnamed Cu–Hg–Pb–Bi–Se species, clausthalite, Corich penroseite and petrovicite.It also forms subhedral to anhedral grains up to 150 μm long and 50 μm wide. Hansblockite is non-fluorescent, black and opaque with a metallic lustre and black streak. It is brittle, with an irregular fracture and no obvious parting and cleavage. The VHN20 values range from37 to 50 (mean 42) kg mm–2 (Mohs hardness 2–2½). In plane-polarized incident light, hansblockite is cream to light grey in colour, weakly bireflectant and weakly pleochroic from greyish cream to cream. Under crossed polars, hansblockite is weakly anisotropic withkhaki to pale blue rotation tints. The reflectance values in air for the Commission on Ore Mineralogy (COM) standard wavelengths are: 47.3–48.1 (470 nm), 47.4–49.9 (546 nm), 47.1–49.0 (589 nm) and 46.6–48.5 (650 nm). The mean composition is Cu 9.31, Ag 0.73, Hg 11.43,Pb 3.55, Ni 0.17, Co 0.03, Bi 31.17, Se 34.00, total 100.39 wt.%. The mean empirical formula (based on 4 apfu) is (Cu0.68Hg0.27Ag0.03Ni0.01)∑=0.99(Bi0.69Pb0.31)∑=1.00Se2.01. The simplifiedformula is (Cu,Hg) (Bi,Pb)Se2. Hansblockite is monoclinic, space group P21/c, with a = 6.853(1), b = 7.635(1), c = 7.264(1) Å, β = 97.68(1)°, V = 376.66(9) Å3 and Z = 4. Density is 8.26 gcm–3. The five strongest powder X-ray diffraction lines [d in Å (I/I 0) (hkl)] are: 3.97 (90) (111), 3.100 (40) (121), 2.986 (100) (211), 2.808 (50) (112) and 2.620 (50) (022). Hansblockite represents the monoclinic polymorph ofgrundmannite, CuBiSe2, with Hg and Pb being essential in stabilizing the monoclinic structure via the coupled substitution Cu+ + Bi3+⇔ Hg2+ + Pb2+. The mineral name is in honour of Hans Block (1881–1953), in recognition of hisimportant role in boosting Bolivian ore mining.
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  Porphyry Indicator Minerals (PIMS) and Porphyry Vectoring and Fertility Tools (PVFTS) – Indicators of Mineralization Styles and Recorders of Hypogene Geochemical Dispersion Halos

  Cooke, DR; Agnew, P; Hollings, P; Baker, M; Chang, Z; Wilkinson, JJ; White, NC; Zhang, L; Thompson, J; Gemmell, JB; et al. (Decennial Mineral Exploration ConferencesToronto, 2017-10-21)

  In the past decade, significant research efforts have been devoted to mineral chemistry studies to assist porphyry exploration. These activities can be divided into two major fields of research: (1) porphyry indicator minerals (PIMS), which aims to identify the presence of, or potential for, porphyry-style mineralization based on the chemistry of magmatic minerals such as plagioclase, zircon and apatite, or resistate hydrothermal minerals such as magnetite; and (2) porphyry vectoring and fertility tools (PVFTS), which use the chemical compositions of hydrothermal minerals such as epidote, chlorite and alunite to predict the likely direction and distance to mineralized centres, and the potential metal endowment of a mineral district. This new generation of exploration tools has been enabled by advances in laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, short wave length infrared data acquisition and data processing, and the increased availability of microanalytical techniques such as cathodoluminescence. PVFTS and PIMS show considerable promise for porphyry exploration, and are starting to be applied to the diversity of environments that host porphyry and epithermal deposits around the circum-Pacific region. Industry has consistently supported development of these tools, in the case of PVFTS encouraged by several successful “blind tests” where deposit centres have successfully been predicted from distal propylitic settings. Industry adoption is steadily increasing but is restrained by a lack of the necessary analytical equipment and expertise in commercial laboratories.
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  Rare earth elements (REE)—Minerals in the Silius fluorite vein system (Sardinia, Italy)

  Mondillo, N; Boni, M; Balassone, G; Spoleto, S; Stellato, F; Marino, A; Santoro, L; Spratt, J (2016-04)