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Formula: Pb2AlTeO6Cl
Tellurate
Crystal System: Trigonal
Specific gravity: 5.573 calculated
Hardness: 2 to 3
Streak: Very pale bluish grey
Colour: Dark to pale blue-grey
Luminescence: Does not fluoresce under UV
Environments
Backite is a relatively new mineral, approved in 2013.
Localities
At the type locality, the Grand Central mine, Contention-Grand Central Mine group, Tombstone Mining District, Cochise
county, Arizona, USA, backite occurs as rosettes of dark to pale blue-grey hexagonal plates perched on
microcrystalline quartz, associated with
schieffelinite, oboyerite (a mixture of
ottoite and plumbotellurite)
and rodalquilarite
(CM 52.935-942).
Backite is a secondary mineral in the oxidation zone of
rocks containing silver- and gold-
bearing galena and minor amounts of
copper and zinc ores in faulted and
fractured parts of a dike, and in brecciated footwall zones of the dike
(AM 101.1489-1497).
Backite from Grand Central Mine - Image
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