Images
Formula: HgTe
Telluride of mercury,
sphalerite group
Crystal System: Isometric
Specific gravity: 8.10 measured, 8.092 calculated
Hardness: 2½
Streak: Black
Colour: Iron black tending toward grey
Common impurities: Pb
Environments
Coloradoite is a rare mercury telluride typically found as inclusions in gold and associated with
other tellurides, in hydrothermal tellurium - bearing precious metal veins (HOM, MW).
Associated minerals include
altaite, calaverite,
krennerite, petzite,
gold, pyrite,
chalcopyrite, sphalerite,
galena, pyrrhotite and
tetrahedrite – tennantite
(HOM).
Localities
At the Golden Mile deposit, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia, coloradoite is the most common telluride, frequently intergrown with
calaverite, petzite and
gold, and occasionally with chalcopyrite and
tetrahedrite
(AJM 18.1.12-13).
It has been reported as small chips with attached petzite and
krennerite
(AM 34.363-364).
At the Kirkland Lake Mine, Lake Shore Mine, Kirkland Lake Township, Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, coloradoite has been found as
small compact masses embedded in coarsely crystalline calcite and associated with
hessite, chalcopyrite and
tetrahedrite
(AM 34.363-364).
At the Lake Shore Mine, Kirkland Lake Township, Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, coloradoite has been found as compact masses
associated with altaite
(AM 34.363-364).
At the Toburn Mine, Kirkland Lake Township, Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, coloradoite has been found associated with
altaite, pyrite and
chalcopyrite in quartz stringers in
syenite porphyry
(AM 34.363-364).
At the Wright Hargreaves Mine, Kirkland Lake Township, Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, coloradoite has been found as compact masses
with gold, embedded in quartz
(AM 34.363-364).
At the Bidgood mine, Lebel Township, Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, coloradoite has been found as compact masses of exceptional
size associated with calaverite, altaite,
gold and molybdenite in brecciated
quartz
(AM 34.363-364).
At the Hollinger Mine, Tisdale Township, Porcupine mining district, Timmins area, Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada, coloradoite has
been found as several fragments of coarsely crystalline calcite with films of
hessite, coloradoite, tetrahedrite and
chalcopyrite
(AM 34.363-364).
At the Deepford Brook, Clarbeston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK, a sample taken from just above the confluence of the Deepford Brook with the
Afon Syfni was found to contain gold with inclusions of the tellurides coloradoite and
petzite, together with pyrite and
pyrrhotite
(MW).
There are three co-type localities, all in Boulder county, Colorado, USA. The Smuggler Mine is in the Balarat Mining District, and the
Keystone Mine and Mountain Lio mines are in the Magnolia Mining District.
At the Cresson Mine, Eclipse Gulch, Cripple Creek Mining District, Teller county, Colorado, USA, coloradoite occurs intergrown with
galena and krennerite and associated with
acanthite and jarosite
(Minrec 36.2.167).
At the Moon Anchor Mine, Cripple Creek Mining District, Teller county, Colorado, USA, coloradoite occurs with native mercury
(Minrec 36.2.167).
Back to Minerals