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Formula: Hg3S2Cl2
Sulphide of mercury, orthorhombic
paramorph of isometric corderoite
and monoclinic lavrentievite
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 6.87 calculated
Hardness: 2 to 3
Streak: Canary yellow
Colour: Canary yellow when fresh, but photosensitive and blackens within a few minutes on exposure to direct sunlight
Luminescence: Fluoresces red to red-orange under long-wave UV (366 nm); the fluorescence weakens for samples exposed to
sunlight
Environments
Localities
At the type locality, the McDermitt mine, Opalite Mining District, Humboldt county, Nevada, USA, kenhsuite is
found in hydrothermally altered rhyolitic,
tuffaceous lacustrine (formed in lakes) rocks. Regionally, the rocks have
become altered to diagenetic alkaline zeolite minerals and, locally, to
hydrothermal montmorillonite,
kaolinite, adularia,
opal and cristobalite.
Kenhsuite was found at one location near the centre of the open pit, in
montmorillonite and associated with
cinnabar and corderoite. Rare
mercury-bearing minerals that also occur at McDermitt include
radtkeite, calomel,
kleinite, eglestonite, native
mercury and possibly mosesite.
Extremely fine grains of kenhsuite, with coarser cinnabar and
corderoite, are dispersed in
clay adjacent to fractures in argillised
tuffaceous sedimentary rocks. Fibrous and bladed crystals 1 x 10 microns in
length are typical.
Pyrite and stibnite were deposited
earlier than cinnabar, which preceded the
mercury sulpho-halide minerals.
Corderoite, which accounts for approximately 25% of the
mercury ore, formed by the reaction of
sulphur-deficient chloride solutions with
cinnabar, by means of a volume-for-volume replacement. Kenhsuite
commonly is in contact with both cinnabar and
corderoite, Some kenhsuite also occurs as isolated masses and
individual crystals on fracture surfaces and cavities, near cinnabar and
corderoite
(CM 36.201-206).
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