Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T01:45:41.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Rajite, naturally occurring cupric pyrotellurite, a new mineral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

S. A. Williams*
Affiliation:
Phelps Dodge Corporation, Douglas AZ 85607 USA

Summary

Rajite was found at Lone Pine, New Mexico, by R. A. Jenkins. It occurs as small (1.5 mm) crystals in rhyolite with mackayite, and may be a pseudomorph after teineite. Analysis gave CuO 18.4, 15.3, 18.0; TeO2 73.7, 79.8, 79.1; rem. (respectively) 7.9, 2.4, 2.3. Some CaO in samples 2 and 3: 2.5, 0.6%. This gives CuTe2O5, identical to the artificial compound prepared by Moret et al. (1969). Easily soluble in dilute acids; readily fusible.

Monoclinic P21/c with a = 6.866 Å, b = 9.314, c = 7.598, β = 109.1°. Strongest lines 3.064(10), 4.654(8), 3.348(8), 3.111(7), 2.744(7), 3.793(6B), 2.844(5), 2.796(5). With Z = 4, ρcalc = 5.77 g/cm3.

Crystals Duesbury green (RHS-131D), H = 4, ρmeas = 5.75 g/cm3. Pleochroic in greens γ > β > α; α = 2.115, β = 2.135, ‖ [010], γ = 2.26, α:[001] 22° in obtuse β, 2Vγ = 40°.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ballmer, (G. J.), 1932. Am. Mineral. 17, 491-2.Google Scholar
Moret, (J.), Philippot, (P.), and Maurin, (M.), 1969. C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris, 269, 123-5.Google Scholar