Watanabeite

watanabeite

emplectite

bismuth

devilline

Images

Formula: Cu4 (As,Sb)2S5
Sulphosalt, arsenic- and antimony- bearing mineral
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 4.66 measured, 4.66 calculated
Hardness: 4 to 4½
Streak: Lead-grey
Colour: Silver-grey. lead-grey
Environments

Hydrothermal environments

Localities

At the type locality, the Teine mine, Sapporo City, Ishikari Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan, watanabeite occurs with quartz in a hydrothermal vein. A piece of massive silvery lead-grey ore from the National Science Museum, Tokyo, appears to consist only of watanabeite and quartz, and a very minor amount of the secondary copper mineral, devilline. Subsequently, two specimens containing watanabeite or its antimony-dominant analogue were collected from one of the dumps of the mine, where it is embedded within quartz grains in aggregates of tetrahedrite group minerals. An electron microprobe survey identified inclusions of small grains of emplectite, native bismuth and tennantite-tetrahedrite (MM 57.643-649).

At the Gaching occurrence, Maletoyvayam ore field, Karaginsky District, Koryak Okrug, Kamchatka Krai, Russia, watanabeite occurs in a high sulphidation epithermal deposit (HOM).

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