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Formula: PbBi2Te4
Telluride, aleksite group
Crystal System: Trigonal
Specific gravity: 7.739 measured, 8.06 calculated
Hardness: 2½
Streak: Lead-grey
Colour: Silver-white
Magnetism: Non-magnetic
Common impurities: Ag,Sb
Environments
Localities
There are three co-type localities, the Sotk gold mine, Sotk, Gegharkunik Province, Armenia, the Robb-Montbray
mine, Rouyn-Noranda TE, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Québec, Canada, and the Pokrovskaya vein, Kochkar' Au deposit, Plast,
Plastovsky District, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia.
Rucklidgeite is very similar to tellurobismuthite; at the
type localities it occurs as silver-white foliated aggregates intergrown with
gold, and as tabular grains bordering
arsenopyrite and
boulangerite in dolomite.
Associated minerals include gold,
dolomite, and arsenopyrite
(Mindat).
At Lunnon Shoot, Kambalda Nickel mines, Kambalda, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, rucklidgeite is
associated with altaite, galena,
volynskite, hessite,
melonite, chalcopyrite,
michenerite and hawleyite
(HOM).
At the Ashley Mine, Bannockburn Township, Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, rucklidgeite is associated
with tellurobismuthite,
volynskite, calaverite and
hessite
(HOM).
The Yanahara mine, Misaki-cho, Kume District, Okayama Prefecture, Japan, is hosted by a volcanogenic massive
sulphide deposit, closely associated with rhyolite lavas and
pyroclastic rocks. The ores are dominantly composed of fine-grained pyrite,
with small amounts of chalcopyrite and
sphalerite. Gangue minerals,
chiefly quartz and chlorite, are
very minor.
Granitic rocks intruded and imposed a thermal aureole on the
surrounding rocks and ores. Pyrite was converted into
pyrrhotite or magnetite in
the marginal parts of the orebodies. Hydrothermal mineralisation resulted in the formation of thin sulphide veins
composed mainly of pyrrhotite,
jamesonite, arsenopyrite
and bournonite. It is likely that rucklidgeite is related to
this episode of hydrothermal mineralisation.
Pyrrhotite, boulangerite,
meneghinite, arsenopyrite,
pyrite and quartz are major
constituent minerals of the sulphide veins. Rucklidgeite and altaite
are present in lesser amounts. Galena,
chalcopyrite and sphalerite
are ubiquitous in small amounts. Minute grains of electrum are present
sporadically in and around the rucklidgeite grains. The rucklidgeite is present as discrete grains up
to 1 mm across, commonly associated with altaite, and as thin lamellae in
boulangerite, usually less than 0.01 mm wide
(CM 31.99-104).
At the Pokrovskaya vein, Kochkar' Au deposit, Plast, Plastovsky District, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia (one of the
co-type localities), rucklidgeite is microscopically very similar to
tellurobismuthite, occurring as silver-white foliated aggregates
intergrown with gold along fractures in
dolomite, and as tabular grains bordering
arsenopyrite and
boulangerite in dolomite
(AM 63.599).
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