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Formula: CaCu2S2
Sulphide, thiocuprate
Crystal System: Trigonal
Specific gravity: 4.391 calculated
Streak: Cream
Colour: Dark orange
Luminescence: Not fluorescent under UV, strong orange cathodoluminescence, partially hydrated grains have weak
yellowish cathodoluminescence
Environments
Metamorphic environments
Hydrothermal environments
Dzierżanowskite is a relatively new mineral, approved in 2014 and to date (October 2024) reported only
from the type locality.
Localities
At the type locality, Nabi Musa, Jericho Governorate, West Bank, Palestine, dzierżanowskite was found in
larnite
pseudoconglomerate rocks, in
larnite pebbles, which are embedded in a low-temperature mineral matrix.
Associated minerals are larnite,
brownmillerite,
fluorellestadite,
ye'elimite, gehlenite,
periclase, ternesite,
nabimusaite, vorlanite,
vapnikite, fluormayenite,
fluorkyuygenite, oldhamite,
jasmundite, covellite,
chalcocite and pyrrhotite.
Dzierżanowskite forms grains up to 15 μm in size or rims on
oldhamite and laminar intergrowths with
chalcocite and covellite.
It was also found in unusual jasmundite
rocks, forming small ‘paleofumaroles’ within areas of low-temperature hydrothermal rocks bearing
larnite
pseudoconglomerate. Dzierżanowskite is a superimposed
phase of the high-temperature alteration of pyrometamorphic rocks subjected to by-products (melts/fluids and gases)
of pyrometamorphism originating in the deeper levels of combustion
(MM 81.5.1073-1085).
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