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Formula: PdNiAs
Alloy of arsenic, palladium
and nickel
Crystal System: Hexagonal
Specific gravity: 9.33 measured, 10.5 calculated
Hardness: 6
Colour: Greyish white, but lilac-grey when intergrown with native silver,
distinctly rosy with a soft lilac tint with polarite, and greyish-white
with a
greenish tint with stannopalladinite (AM 62.1260).
Environments
Localities
At the Marathon deposit, Coldwell complex, Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada,
oberthürite and
torryweiserite were discovered in a heavy-mineral concentrate.
Associated minerals include vysotskite, a
gold-silver alloy,
isoferroplatinum,
germanium-bearing
keithconnite, majakite,
coldwellite,
ferhodsite-series minerals
(cuprorhodsite –
ferhodsite), kotulskite and
mertieite-II; also the base-metal sulphides
chalcopyrite, bornite,
millerite and
rhodium-bearing pentlandite
(CM 59.1833-1863).
At the Konttijärvi deposit, Portimo complex, Lapland, Finland, majakite occurs in sulphide mineralisation in a
strongly metamorphosed layered intrusive, associated with isomertieite
and
mertieite
(HOM).
At the type locality, the Mayak mine, Talnakh Cu-Ni Deposit, Noril'sk, Putoran Plateau, Taimyr Peninsula, Taymyrskiy
Autonomous Okrug, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, majakite was found only as intergrowths with other
platinum group minerals in the
chalcopyrite and talnakhite
ores
of the mine. Majakite often occurs as rounded or oval inclusions in
polarite, and also as intergrowths with
stannopalladinite. In some cases it occurs as part of more complex
intergrowths containing a large number of platinum group minerals. In
reflected
light majakite appears greyish white, but it is lilac-grey when intergrown with native
silver, distinctly rosy with a soft lilac tint with
polarite, and greyish white with a greenish tint with
stannopalladinite
(AM 62.1260). Associated minerals include chalcopyrite,
talnakhite, polarite,
stannopalladinite, silver,
iron-bearing platinum,
sperrylite and
other platinum group minerals
(HOM).
In the Chiney intrusion, Siberia, Russia, menshikovite up to 0.1 mm in
size
occurs in mineralised quartz –
feldspar
sandstones, which are metasomatically altered and recrystallised,
and
contain amphibole, mica,
chlorite, disseminated or massive sulphides (mostly
chalcopyrite),
palladium-rich
maucherite, nickeline,
sperrylite, mertieite-II,
stibiopalladinite,
isomertieite, majakite and
michenerite
(CM 40.679-692).
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