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Formula: Pd2CuSn
Alloy, palladium-bearing mineral
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 11.1 measured, 10.7 calculated
Hardness: 4
Colour: White, pink with a slight violet tint
Common impurities: Pt,Ag,Sb
Environments
Plutonic igneous environments
Pegmatites
Hydrothermal environments
Cabriite occurs in massive mooihoekite ore, and also in
galena–chalcopyrite veins.
Associated minerals include mooihoekite,
sperrylite, geversite,
putoranite, paolovite,
talnakhite, sobolevskite,
polarite, froodite,
auricupride, silver,
cassiterite, stannite,
chalcopyrite, valleriite,
galena, sphalerite and
magnetite
(HOM).
Localities
At the type locality, the Oktyabrsky Mine, Talnakh Cu-Ni Deposit, Noril'sk, Putoran Plateau, Taimyr Peninsula,
Taymyrskiy Autonomous Okrug, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, cabriite is characteristically found in massive
copper-nickel sulphide ores composed
mainly of metal-rich minerals of the chalcopyrite group, such as
mooihoekite, putoranite and
talnakhite. The cabriite usually occurs as individual grains up to
200 microns in size, but it is sometimes closely intergrown with polarite,
sobolevskite, putoranite,
sperrylite, paolovite and other
platinum group minerals.
Cassiterite and stannite also
occur in association with cabriite and other
palladium-tin-copper
minerals in galena-chalcopyrite
vein ores. It appears that cassiterite and cabriite were formed
contemporaneously.
Stannite also occurs between the
platinum group minerals and the ore-forming sulphides, and probably formed
as a reaction rim.
Palladium-platinum-tin
minerals such as atokite, paolovite
and rustenburgite are characteristic of the
platinum group element mineralisation in these deposits
(CM 21.481-487).
A relatively coarse grain of cabriite was found in a concentrate from the Noril’sk district. It is surrounded
by cubanite and chalcopyrite,
which are cut by minor veinlets of galena and flanked by mm-scale crystals of
sperrylite. The platinum
apparently substitutes for palladium, and
antimony to a lesser extent for tin.
The cabriite contains micron sized rounded blebs of bismuthian
geversite. Associated minerals include
cubanite, chalcopyrite and
sperrylite, and talnakhite and
cubanite exsolved from
chalcopyrite. The cabriite has a partial rim of native
silver. A late-stage origin is suggested for cabriite and an associated
gold-silver alloy
(CM 40.473-479).
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