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Formula: Pd3Pb
Alloy of palladium and lead
Crystal System: Isometric
Specific gravity: 13.32 measured, 13.42 calculated
Hardness: 4½
Streak: Black
Colour: Creamy white
Common impurities: Cu,Fe,Ni
Environments
Plutonic igneous environments
Hydrothermal environments
Zvyagintsevite occurs as small irregular grains and veinlets in copper sulphides
associated with differentiated
gabbro-dolerite intrusives
(Webmin).
Localities
At the Kirakkajuppura PGE deposit, Sompujärvi Reef, Penikat complex, Lapland, Finland,
platinum-poor members of the
vysotskite-braggite series,
zvyagintsevite, and
palladium-lead oxide are the main
platinum group minerals. The large aggregates of
platinum group minerals are composed mainly of
vysotskite-braggite, which is altered and
probably oxidised to various degrees, and commonly replaced by very fine-grained aggregates of zvyagintsevite and related
secondary
platinum group
minerals. Also present in these aggregates are members of the
malanite-cuprorhodsite series
(CM 37.1507-1524).
At the type locality, the Talnakh Cu-Ni Deposit, Noril'sk, Putoran Plateau, Taimyr Peninsula, Taymyrskiy Autonomous Okrug,
Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, zvyagintsevite was discovered in a small specimen about 4 cm across. The deposit consists mostly
of ores of
chalcopyrite-pentlandite-pyrrhotite,
associated with intrusives of
gabbro-dolerite, cutting
sandstone-schist. The
platinum group minerals are most common in
chalcopyrite veins. In the sample, associated minerals include
chalcopyrite, cubanite,
pentlandite, and minor magnetite and
valleriite. Zvyagintsevite occurs as irregular grains, up to 250 microns in
size, and veinlets, usually within copper sulphides, and also within valleriite and
magnetite. Silver and
gold alloy grains were mostly found at the periphery of zvyagintsevite grains
(CM 8.541-550). Other associated minerals include talnakhite,
polarite and pentlandite
(HOM).
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