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.

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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