Quetzalcoatlite

quetzalcoatlite

dickite

khinite

dugganite

Images

Formula: Cu2+3Zn6Te6+2O12(OH)6.(Ag,Pb,☐)Cl
Tellurite
Crystal System: Trigonal
Specific gravity: 6.05 measured, 4.82 calculated
Hardness: 3
Streak: Pale blue, almost white
Colour: Blue
Environments

Hydrothermal environments

Quetzalcoatlite is found as a secondary mineral in some oxidised telluride-bearing ore bodies (Webmin).

Localities

At the type locality, the Bambollita Mine, moctezuma, Moctezuma Municipality, Sonora, Mexico, quetzalcoatlite was found only in the very richest pieces of ore. Usually these are spectacular masses or nuggets of hessite with minor galena and bornite. The gangue is rhyolite so severely altered that only a variety of clays (kaolinite, dickite and others) and quartz remain. The primary ore grains replace this altered rock or are embedded in thin stringers of coarse baryte. Incipient oxidation has occurred in these samples. Galena is thinly rimmed with cerussite, brilliant azurite crystals film bornite, and pitted surfaces on hessite grains are implanted with chlorargyrite and stubby prisms of teineite. Quetzalcoatlite occurs in such material as minute crystalline crusts or sprays of needles in thin fractures. Often these fractures are filled with dickite, which is stained a pea green colour with an amorphous copper-tellurium compound. This compound corrodes and partly replaces quetzalcoatlite (MM 39.261-263).

At the Old Guard mine, Tombstone, Tombstone Mining District, Cochise County, Arizona, USA, quetzalcoatlite is associated with khinite, dugganite, chlorargyrite and gold (HOM).

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