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Formula: Cu13Fe2Ge2S16
Germanium-bearing sulphide, germanite group
Crystal System: Isometric
Specific gravity: 4.46 to 4.59
Hardness: 4
Streak: Dark grey
Colour: Pale greyish pink, tarnishing brown to black
Common impurities: Ga,Zn,Mo,As,V
Environments
Germanite occurs in primary
copper-lead-zinc
ores (Webmin) associated
with renierite, pyrite,
tennantite, enargite,
galena, sphalerite,
digenite, bornite and
chalcopyrite
(HOM).
Localities
At the type locality, the Tsumeb mine, Tsumeb, Oshikoto Region, Namibia, germanite occurs in
primary
copper-lead-zinc
ores in a dolostone-hosted hydrothermal polymetallic ore deposit
(HOM). Associated
minerals include tennantite,
renierite,
pyrite, galena,
enargite, digenite and
bornite
(Mindat).
Germanite occurred in rough stringers, crisscrossed with tennantite,
and as rare disseminations in the pseudo-aplite ore, and also traces of
germanite were noted with lead-zinc
ores at 280-metre depth
(R&M 93.6.544-545).
Textural relations observed in germanium-rich sulphide ore from the Tsumeb mine suggest that germanite
was deposited at an early stage of the hypogene mineralisation
and that renierite, which is closely associated with the germanite and
present in approximately equal amounts, developed at a later stage principally by selective replacement of
germanite and without further addition of germanium to the ore
(EG 52.6.612–631).
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