Altaite
Altaite is a user that is unusual of Galena Group of minerals that also includes Alabandite, Clausthalite and Galena. Altaite is a lead telluride mineral that is opaque with metallic color and luster of tin-white with yellowish tint that may tarnish to bronze. Altaite is generally found with Galena which it shares the structure that is exact same other properties. Altaite features a greater thickness than Galena however. The 2 minerals are found together in sulfide vein ore bodies. Altaite can be connected with silver and gold that is several Silver sulfides and tellurides. The image above programs bright silvery that is metallic of Altaite in a Quartz matrix through the Mattagami Lake mine, Matagami, Nord-du-Québec, Québec, Canada.
Altaite is known as after the Altai Mountains during the discovery locality at the Zavodinskii that is 2nd Mine Zavodinsk Rayon Altai Mountains, Eastern Kazakhstan Province, Kazakhstan.
Altaite distribution: occurrences are too many to fully record. Selected localities are: in the Zavodinskii mine, near Ziryanovsk, Altai Mountains, Kazakhstan [TL], a huge selection of kg. During the Bereznyakov gold deposit, Southern Ural Mountains, Russia. From Sãcãrîmb (Nagyág), Sacarîmb, Romania. At Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In the Fiji Islands, in the Tuvatu Au–Ag–Te deposit, Viti Levu. From the Bulawan deposit, Negros Occidental, Phillipines. At several mines in the Kirkland Lake area, Ontario, Canada. In the USA, in the Foote mine, Kings Mountain, Cleveland County, North Carolina; the Red Cloud mine, Gold Hill, Boulder County, Colorado; the Mayflower mine, Tobacco Root Mountains, Madison County, Montana; the Hilltop mine, near Las Cruces, Do˜na Ana County, New Mexico; the Stanislaus mine, Carson Hill region, Calaveras County, California; plus the Minnamax Cu–Ni–sulfide deposit, Duluth Gabbro complex, near Hibbing, St. Louis County, Minnesota. From the San Francisco mine, 145 north that is km of, Sonora, Mexico.
| Category: | Telluride mineral |
| Chemical Formula: | PbTe |
| Lead Telluride | |
| Molecular Weight: | 334.80 gm |
| Composition: | Tellurium | 38.11 % | Te | ||
| Lead | 61.89 % | Pb | |||
| 100.00 % |
| Crystallography: | Isometric – Hexoctahedral |
| Crystal Habit: | Rarely in very small cubes and octahedra; massive, as cleavages, to 1 cm; granular, myrmekitic in other sulfides. |
| Twinning: | None |
| Cleavage: | Perfect on {001} |
| Fracture: | Sub-Conchoidal |
| Tenacity: | Sectile |
| Mohs Hardness: | 3.0; Vickers: VHN100=47-53 kg/mm2 |
| Density: | 8.19 (g/cm3) |
| Luminescence: | None |
| Radioactivity: | Not Radioactive |
| Color: | Tin-white with yellowish tint, tarnishes bronze; in polished section, white with a delicate greenish hue |
| Transparency: | Opaque |
| Luster: | Metallic |
| Refractive Index: | R: (400) 59.6, (420) 62.6, (440) 65.2, (460) 67.5, (480) 69.3, (500) 70.6, (520) 71.2, (540) 71.1, (560) 70.1, (580) 68.7, (600) 66.8, (620) 65.1, (640) 63.4, (660) 61.9, (680) 60.6, (700) 59.4 |
| Birefringence: | 0.000 (opaque) |
| Dispersion: | None |
| Pleochroism: | None |
| Anisotropism: |
None |
