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Formula: Cu3Te6+O4(OH)4
Tellurite
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 4.45 measured, 4.455 calculated
Hardness: 3
Streak: Pale green
Colour: Emerald-green, dark green in transmitted light
Luminescence: No fluorescence was observed in long or short wave V.V.
Solubility: Readily dissolved by cold or warm 1:1 hydrochloric and nitric acid, insoluble in water
Environments
Localities
At the type locality, the Bambollita Mine, Moctezuma, Moctezuma Municipality, Sonora, Mexico, there are two thin
veins exposed in the mine, and cesbronite occurs in only one. This vein is closer to the portal and is more
severely oxidised than the other vein (where quetzalcoatlite occurs).
The primary mineralogy of both veins is the same:
hessite - bornite -
galena.
Early oxidation products in the vein are electrum,
teineite and carlfriesite.
Cesbronite comes later, appearing when the primary
ores are wholly decayed or are completely enveloped in
secondary products. While cesbronite may occur on
these relics, usually it is found filming fractures up to several inches away. Often it is found directly upon
spherules of a dark-green copper -
iron - tellurium mineral; just as
commonly this unknown mineral has disappeared, leaving a hollow crystalline spherule of cesbronite. The last
mineral in the sequence is a pea-green amorphous copper -
iron - tellurium mineral that is
ubiquitous in the vicinity of both veins.
Although cesbronite is widely distributed along the vein walls, there is not very much of it, perhaps just a
gramme or so of material is available
(MM 39.744-746).
At the Centennial Eureka Mine, Eureka, Tintic Mining District, Juab County, Utah, USA,
jensenite is one of several
copper-bearing tellurates that
occur in the deposit; associated minerals include mcalpineite and
xocomecatlite. Additional
copper- and tellurium-bearing
secondary minerals that have been found at this locality are
cesbronite, frankhawthorneite,
dugganite and
quetzalcoatlite
(CM 34.55-59).
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