Arsenohauchecornite

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Can you help make this a better article? What good localities have we missed? Can you supply pictures of better specimens than those we show here? Can you give us more and better information about the specimens from these localities? Can you supply better geological or historical information on these localities?

Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Arsenohauchecornite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Arsenohauchecornite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Arsenohauchecornite that will go into the article.



Arsenohauchecornite Rare Mineral and Species collections

Ni₉BiAsS₈ Tetragonal


Even after reading the caption and looking where the arrow points, I am not sure just which is the Arsenohauchecornite. The grey tabular are the xls, the bronze could be niccolite but Carpentier analyses his stuff and his caption says that the bronze is Arsenohauchecornite. So I'd believe that. Specimens don't get much better than this!Certainly we should be able to get a better picture of the mineral than this. We need someone to tell us about the specimens from this locality. I tried -Rob Woodside

Arsenohauchecornite
Canada
Ontario, Sudbury District, Denison Township, Vermilion Mine


This arose from the redefinition of Hauchecornite into Arsenohauchecornite¹, Tellurohauchecornite¹ and Bismutohauchecornite². It occurs as "tabular crystals to 20 mm; irregular masses to 10 mm”³. Also found at USSR, Kazakhstan, Karagaily and Japan, Shimane Prefecture, Hiroshima City, Tsumo Mine. The mineral is bronze colored and brilliant on fresh breaks.

1) R.L Gait, D.C. Harris, Arsenohauchecornite and Tellurohauchecornite, New Minerals in the Hauchecornite Group, Mineral. Mag. 43, 877-878, (1980).
2) J. Just, Bismutohauchecornite - New Name: Hauchecornite Redefined, Mineral. Mag. 43, 873-876, (1980)
3) Handbook of Mineralogy, Volume I, Anthony, Bideaux, Bladh, Nichols, p25.

Ask Bob Gait and Dimity about this mineral

Canada
Ontario, Sudbury, Vermilion Mine.

This mine was found during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Trans Canada Railway completed in 1885. This was the first Sudbury mine and it produced Gold and Platinum rather than nickel. There was a stamp mill where the gold was pounded out of the ore. This is the type locality for Arsenohauchecornite as well as Sperrylite. The mine closed in the early 20th century and the dumps were the source of almost all the Arsenohauchecornite and Sperrylite from Sudbury. The Sudbury mining companies (Inco and Falconbridge) had, and their descendants still do, a production bonus policy that make the production crew stop any miner who might take the time to save anything from the crusher. When Inco realized that Sperrylites were still on the dumps, they mined the dumps. Now there is absolutely nothing left. I (RWMW) doubt that more than a flat or two of Arsenohauchecornites were ever produced. It occured as tabular xls to a few mm "associated with “Chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, gersdorffite, pyrite, gold, nickeline, galena, copper, sperrylite, michenerite, froodite…”¹. If you can find a hand specimen with a few mm xl, you are very lucky and in 2009 would have to pay several hundred dollars. It is so rare and ugly that you might get a terrific deal on one from a recycled collection through an unknowing dealer.

1) Handbook of Mineralogy, Volume I, Anthony, Bideaux, Bladh, Nichols, p25.



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Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2010 08:39AM by Rock Currier.

Rock, I tampered with your entry. There is so miuch to do on this project that I thought it might save some time cutting and pasting, if I attacked the entry itself. Please feel free to change anything.

I appreciate it. Feel free any time to jump in and clean up a mess. But which are the Arsenohauchecornite? The caption say Bronze metallic irregular mass (to 15 mm) of Arsenohauchecornite. I don't see any irregular mass, but rather what looks to be a string of perhaps hexagonal bronze plates. What are the black/gray platy crystals both a bit above and below the string of bronze colored crystals. What is the arrow pointing at exactly? that stringer of brown limonite looking material? What is that? Its a mess. I think we should ask the guy who submitted the picture.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2009 08:04PM by Rock Currier.

Frank Keutsch saw this photo was the child of its reverse which showed no xls and thought they ought to be reversed. I agreed and "complained" to Carpentier who happily reversed the photos and informed us of the analysis. The 1.5 cm stringer next to the focused chalcopyrite is on the reverse. So maybe the bronze in this photo is niccolite. I don't see any hexagonal plates in this photo. The grey black in this photo is probably gersdorfite, but this is very complex ore. I'll "complain" to Carpentier again and he'll reply in a day or so.

I am lucky enough to have two specimens of arsenohauchecornite which look to be bronze in color. I suspected that the bronze color may be due to oxidation and breaking a small piece off of one clump resulted in a brilliant grey metallic concoidal fresh surface.

Jean-Francois just answered with:

concerning the arsenohauchercornite specimen, this one was indeed confirmed by SEM-EDX (and said also by XRD) but not by myself, by the guy from which I obtained the specimen; I just have a hard copy of the SEM-EDX results at home - results which are consistent but I do not know on which very part of the specimen the analysis was actually run; I initially assumed that arsenohauchercornite is the bronze tabular crystals; but considering the number of potential species raised by people and the divergent opinions, I will re-run myself an EDX analysis; I guess I shall have the results in a week or so. I'll post the results on Mindat, as well as a better photo and a clear statement this time. please forward this mail to Rock

regards, jf

Now John has me confused about the colour. I know the grey tabular xls are the Arsenohauchecornite, but I wouldn't chip any to check a fresh surface. Bronze looking could be niccolite or maucherite.

Well how abut that. You know the two of you just might make a decent guy. I take back half of the terrible things I have been saying about you and Bob, Ill recommend to Jolyon that he not cut you pay in half after all.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

So a quarter of the bad things you've been saying about me are true? You might ask Jolyon double my pay. I'd get just the same if he didn't change it or even halved it!!!

Hi,
I have finally SEM-EDS results in hands and they are consistent with arsenohauchecornite together with several other species; just let me a while for finalizing them as well as getting a good picture of my specimen to state clearly what is what.

Just a quick note, I think that the current formula on Mindat for Arsenohauchecornitre is not correct; instead of [Ni9BiAsS8] it should be N18Bi3AsS16 [Canadian Mineralogist Vol. 27, pp. 137-142 (1989)] [Anthony J W, Bideaux R A, Bladh K W, and Nichols M C (1990) Handbook of Mineralogy]
I guess this should be fixed

jf

Thanks so much Jean-Francois. I'll do the formula correction. It is amazing what slips by.

If Jean-Francois has some spectra related to the specimen imaged in the article, we would gladly link those spectra to the article for the techinically inclined to access should they wish to.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

I have tried shooting close-ups of the interesting phases but I am so unskilled in this matter that nothing valuable came out:S.
I definitely need to learn how to do this because it's frustrating to see rather "wonderful" things under the scope and not being able to share them. I will post another thread to see if there is a Mindater skilled in this matter close to the place I live (Rennes, Brittany)...
Under the scope the situation looks quite clear now. As John wrote above, the arsenohauchecornite is bronze because tarnished; when a chunk is removed, it is grey bright metallic (this is clear to see now on my specimen now); SEM-EDS yielded an average formula determined on a 100 × 100 mm section (on the basis of 16 S atoms): (Ni17.0,Pb0.6)S=17.6Bi2.3As1.1S16; total of these elements = 99.18 wt-%). (see attached pdf file).
Knowing the aformentioned tarnishing of Arsenohauchecornite, one can distinguish in this complex ore: arsenohauchecornite (bronze on old surfaces), which has a different tint from chalcopyrite (minor in this ore), dull black crystals of Galena (with an obvious cubic cleavage).and blocky crystals of brassy white-yellowish Millerite (the major ore). Note that the latter Millerite contains small (10-50 mm) yet unidentified inclusions that analyze as “NiPbS2” and “Ni3PbS4”. do not know what this stuff can be but these inclusions are quite numerous and all came out with such analyses.

hopefully, close-up photographs will come soon, if I can find someone helping me on this matter.
jf

Could you have found Shandite or "lead Parkerite"? I haven't probed this material, but you can bet they went over it with a fine tooth comb when they redefined Huachecornite.