Bornite

Approved, 'Grandfathered' (first described prior to 1959)

1962

2/B.02-30

2.BA.15

2 : SULFIDES and SULFOSALTS (sulfides, selenides, tellurides; arsenides, antimonides, bismuthides; sulfarsenites, sulfantimonites, sulfbismuthites, etc.)
B : Metal Sulfides, M: S > 1: 1 (mainly 2: 1)
A : With Cu, Ag, Au

2.5.2.1

2.5.2.1

2 : SULFIDES
5 : A_mB_nX_p, with (m+n):p = 3:2

3.1.23

3 : Sulphides, Selenides, Tellurides, Arsenides and Bismuthides (except the arsenides, antimonides and bismuthides of Cu, Ag and Au, which are included in Section 1)
1 : Sulphides etc. of Cu

Metallic

Opaque

Copper-red to pinchbeck-brown, quickly tarnishing to an iridescent purplish surface.

Grey-Black

3

VHN₁₀₀=92 kg/mm²

Measured

Brittle

Poor/Indistinct
In traces on {111}.

None.

Irregular/Uneven

5.06 - 5.09 g/cm³ (Measured)    5.09 g/cm³ (Calculated)

Anisotropic

Weak

Copper-red.

Purplish iridescence.

Weak

Cu, Fe, S - search for minerals with similar chemistry

Wet chemical analysis of material from Messina, Transvaal given first. Ideal given second.

Cu (63.24)
Fe (11.12)
S (25.54)
Total (90.90)
.
Cu (63.32}
Fe (11.13)
S (25.55)
Total (100.00)

Ag,Ge,Bi,In,Pb

Orthorhombic

mmm (2/m 2/m 2/m) - Dipyramidal

a = 10.95 Å, b = 21.862 Å, c = 10.95 Å

a:b:c = 0.501 : 1 : 0.501

V 2621.31 ų

16

Crystals rare, usually blocky with rough curved faces, pseudo-cubic, pseudo-dodecohedral and rarely pseudo-octahedral. Forms noted: {001}, {011}, {111}, {112}, {223} and {335}.

On {111}, often as penetration twins.

Various, mostly temperature-dependent supercells are known.

Radiation - Copper Kα

Data Set: Bethlehem Copper mine, Highland Valley, Logan Lake, British Columbia, Canada 1111

Data courtesy of RRUFF project at University of Arizona, used with permission.

ⓘ Jáchymov (St Joachimsthal), Jáchymov District (St Joachimsthal), Krušné Hory Mts (Erzgebirge), Karlovy Vary Region, Bohemia (Böhmen; Boehmen), Czech Republic

No information on health risks for this material has been entered into the database. You should always treat mineral specimens with care.

A major ore of copper.

Palache, Charles, Harry Berman & Clifford Frondel (1944) The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana Yale University 1837-1892, Volume I: Elements, Sulfides, Sulfosalts, Oxides. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. 7th edition, revised and enlarged, 834pp.: 195-197.

Acta Crystallographica: 17: 351-360.

Cuthbert, M.E. (1962) Formation of bornite at atmospheric temperature and pressure. Economic Geology: 57: 38-41.

Koto, K. and Morimoto, N. (1975) Superstructure investigation of bornite, Cu5FeS4, by the modified partial Patterson function. Acta Crystallographica, B31, 2268-2273.

Kanazawa, Y., Koto, K., Morimoto, N. (1978) Bornite (Cu5FeS4): stability and crystal structure of the intermediate form. Canadian Mineralogist, 16, 397-404.

Pierce, L. & Buseck, P. R. (1978) Superstructuring in the bornite-digenite series: a high-resolution electron microscopy study. American Mineralogist 63, 1-16.

Jagadeesh, M.S., Nagarathna, H.M., Montano, P.A., and Seehra, M.S. (1981) Magnetic and Mössbauer studies of phase transitions and mixed valences in bornite (Cu4.5Fe1.2S4.7). Phys. Rev.: B23: 2350-2356.

Buckley, A.N. and Woods, R. (1983) An X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic investigation of the tarnishing of bornite. Australian Journal of Chemistry: 36: 1793-1804.

Robie, R.A., Wiggins, L.B., Barton, P.B., Jr., and Hemingway, B.S. (1985) Low-temperature heat capacity and entropy of chalcopyrite (CuFeS2): estimates of the standard molar enthalpy and Gibbs free energy of formation of chalcopyrite and bornite (Cu5FeS4). Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics: 17: 481-488.

Vaughan, D.J., Tossell, J.A., and Stanley, C.J. (1987) The surface properties of bornite. Mineralogical Magazine: 51: 285-293.

Kratz, T. & Fuess, H. (1989) Simultane Strukturbestimmung von Kupferkies und Bornit an einem Kristall. Zeitschrift für Kristallographie, 186, 167-169.

Piestrzyński, A. (Main Ed.), Zaleska-Kuczmierczyk, M., Jasiński, A.W., Kotarski, J., Maślanka, W., Siewierski, S., Speczik, S., Śmieszek, Z. (1996) Monografia KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. Lubin., 1204 pp.

Gaines, Richard V., H. Catherine, W. Skinner, Eugene E. Foord, Brian Mason, Abraham Rosenzweig (1997) Dana's New Mineralogy: The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana, 8th. edition: 52.

Grguric, B. A. & Putnis, A. (1998) Compositional controls on phase-transition temperatures in bornite: a differential scanning calorimetry study. Canadian Mineralogist, 36, 215-227.

Ding, Y., Veblen, D. R., Prewitt, C. T. (2005) High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) study of the 4a and 6a superstructure of bornite Cu5FeS4. American Mineralogist, 90, 1256-1264.

Harmer, S.L., Pratt, A.R., Nesbitt, H.W., and Fleet, M.E. (2005) Reconstruction of fracture surfaces on bornite. Canadian Mineralogist, 43, 1619-1630.

Cook, N. J., Ciobanu, C. L., Danyushevsky, L. V., Gilbert, S. (2011) Minor and trace elements in bornite and associated Cu-(Fe)-sulfides: A LA-ICP-MS study. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 75, 6473-6496.

Ciobanu, C. L., Cook, N. J., Ehrig, K. (2017) Ore minerals down to the nanoscale: Cu-(Fe)-sulphides from the iron oxide copper gold deposit at Olympic Dam, South Australia. Ore Geology Review 81, 1218-1235. [on non-stoichiometry].

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