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Formula: K6Fe20S26S
Sulphide
Crystal System: Tetragonal
Specific gravity: 3.305 measured, 3.286 calculated
Hardness: 3½
Streak: Black
Colour: Blackish brown
Common impurities: Na,Cu,Ni,Co,Cl
Environments
Volcanic igneous environments
Pegmatites
Localities
At the Palitra pegmatite, Karnasurt mine, Kedykverpakhk Mountain, Lovozersky District, Murmansk Oblast, Russia,
bartonite has been found
in an ussingite - natrolite vein.
Together with
chlorbartonite it forms granular masses to 1 cm associated with
nepheline, eudialyte,
lorenzenite, arfvedsonite,
aegirine and villiaumite
(Minrec 36.5.403).
At the type locality, Coyote Peak, Coastal Range, Humboldt county, California, USA, bartonite occurs in clots with
other sulphides
and silicates in a breccia-filled volcanic pipe. Associated minerals include
rasvumite, djerfisherite,
erdite, pyrrhotite,
pyrite, sphalerite,
löllingite, magnetite,
nepheline and phlogopite
(HOM, Mindat).
Bartonite occurs in masses up to several mm across, intergrown with pyrrhotite
(AM 64.241). Bartonite may be intimately intergrown with the typical silicates that comprise the host rock.
In many specimens,
it appears that bartonite has replaced pyrrhotite, and some aggregates of
bartonite contain inclusions of phlogopite. Rarely, bartonite occurs
as subhedral
cores of octahedral crystals of magnetite
(AM 66.369-375).
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