- Gersdorffite
Gersdorffite is a
nickel arsenic sulfide mineral with formula NiAsS. It crystallizes in the isometric system showing diploidal symmetry. It occurs as euhedral to massive opaque, metallic grey-black to silver white forms. Gersdorffite belongs to asolid solution series withcobaltite , CoAsS.Antimony freely substitutes also leading toullmannite , NiSbS. It has aMohs hardness of 5.5 and aspecific gravity of 5.9 to 6.33.Gersdorffite occurs as a
hydrothermal vein mineral along with other nickel sulfides. Associated minerals includenickeline , nickel-skutterudite , cobaltite, ullmannite,maucherite ,lollingite , platinum-group minerals,millerite ,pyrite ,marcasite , andchalcopyrite .Gersdorffite was first described in 1843 and named for Johann von Gersdorff (1781–1849), owner of the nickel mine at Schladming,
Austria the type locality.References
* Palache, C., H. Berman, and C. Frondel (1944) Dana’s system of mineralogy, (7th edition), v. I, pp. 298–300
* [http://webmineral.com/data/Gersdorffite.shtml Webmineral data]
* [http://www.mindat.org/show.php?id=1683&ld=1&pho= Mindat with location data]
* [http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/gersdorffite.pdf Mineral Data Publishing PDF]
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