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Formula: Pt3Fe
Alloy
Crystal System: Isometric
Specific gravity: 18.41 calculated
Hardness: 5
Colour: Grey
Common impurities: Ir,Os,Ru,Rh,Ni
Environments
Igneous environments
Placer deposits
Isoferroplatinum occurs in
platinum-iron and
copper-nickel deposits in
ultramafic rocks,
and chromatite-rich rocks, and in placers derived from them
(Webmin, HOM). Associated minerals include platinum,
iridium, osmium,
platinum–iron alloys,
braggite and sperrylite; it may
contain inclusions of many other platinum group minerals,
gold and
pyrite
(HOM).
Isoferroplatinum has been found with inclusions of michenerite
(CM 13.117-126).
Localities
There are three co-type localities, the placer deposits of the Tulameen River, Similkameen Mining Division, British
Columbia, Canada,
the Witwatersrand goldfield, South Africa, and the Stillwater Complex, Montana, USA.
At the Tagil'skiy Verkhnesaldinsky District, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, isoferroplatinum has been found on ferrian
magnesiochromite
(FM 41790).
At Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA, some kimberlite has been found
containing bleb-like aggregates of pyrrhotite,
pentlandite
and chalcopyrite, occurring
in olivine megacrysts. Two of these sulphide blebs contained a grain of
platinum–iron alloy, which may be
isoferroplatinum, within the bleb margin
(AM 75.881-885).
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