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Formula: Pb2+12(Te4+O3)11(SO4)
Tellurite
Crystal system: Triclinic
Specific gravity: 7.45 calculated
Hardness: 2
Streak: White
Colour: Colourless
Luminescence:
Solubility: Very slowly soluble in cold dilute nitric and hydrochloric acids, but solubility is easy when warmed.
Environments
Localities
At the type locality, the Grand Central Mine, Contention-Grand Central Mine group, Tombstone Mining District, Cochise
County, Arizona, USA, one fist-sized specimen of fairbankite was found on the waste dump of the mine. Crystals
of fairbankite are colourless and clear, have a bright resinous to adamantine lustre, and could be easily
confounded with cerussite or
anglesite. No free-standing crystals were found; all crystals in the
specimen are present as a thin crust plastered on the walls of voids left by leached
galena
(MM 43.453-457).
Fairbankite is very rare on the mine dump from the hydrothermal
gold-tellurium-bearing ore deposit.
Associated minerals include winstanleyite,
cerussite, chlorargyrite,
jarosite, rodalquilarite
and opal
(HOM).
Fairbankite from the Grand Central Mine -
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