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Formula: FeSi2
Silicide of iron
Crystal system: Tetragonal
Specific gravity: 4.972 calculated
Hardness: 6½
Streak: Greyish black
Colour: Steel-grey
Environments
Plutonic igneous environments
Derived from the mantle
Localities
At the type locality, the Luobusha ophiolite, Qusum County, Shannan Prefecture, Tibet, China, linzhiite was
found in a podiform chromitite in depleted
harzburgites. The linzhiite type sample was separated
from the heavy mineral constituents derived from a 1500 kg sample of
chromitite. Linzhiite occurs as irregular grains ranging
from 0.04 to 0.5 mm and intergrowths with zangboite and native silicon.
A wide variety of minerals has been handpicked from the
chromitite separates, including
diamond, coesite, other native
elements, carbides, platinum group and base-metal alloys, nitrides,
silicides, sulphides, silicates and oxides. Linzhiite is steel-grey with a metallic lustre and a greyish
black streak
(AM 99.7.1516).
Linzhiite formed in a strongly reducing environment and possibly occurs as xenocrysts derived from mantle
sources
(EJM 24.6.1047-1052).
At the Poltava series, Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, linzhiite has been found in placers and in
drill-core samples of sandstones. After concentration with heavy
liquids these were found to be almost entirely in the non-magnetic fraction, with
zircon, rutile,
corundum, topaz and
pyrite. They were not found in the crystalline rocks of the region. The
grains are serrated, specular and dendritic with only traces of crystal forms; rare intergrowths with
quartz were noted
(AM 54.1737-1742 as Fersilicite).
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