Maucherite

Images

Formula: Ni₁₁As₈
Arsenide
Crystal System: Tetragonal
Specific gravity: 7.83 to 8.00 measured, 8.02 calculated
Hardness: 5
Streak: Dark grey
Colour: reddish silver-white, turning darker reddish grey on exposure to air
Common impurities: Co,Fe,Cu,Sb,S
Environments

Hydrothermal environments

Maucherite occurs in nickel-cobalt arsenide hydrothermal veins with other nickel arsenides and sulphides (Dana).

Localities

At the Cobalt area, Cobalt-Gowganda region, Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, maucherite is associated with nickeline, rammelsbergite and pararammelsbergite in nickel-cobalt-silver deposits (AM 58.203-210).

Maucherite from the Cobalt Area - Image

At the Orford nickel mine, St-Denis-de-Brompton, Le Val-Saint-François RCM, Estrie, Quebec, Canada, maucherite is associated with millerite, uvarovite, pyroxene and calcite (HOM).

Maucherite from Orford - Image

At the type locality, Eisleben, Mansfeld Basin, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, maucherite is associated with nickeline, rammelsbergite, pararammelsbergite, nickelskutterudite and chalcopyrite in nickel-cobalt-silver deposits (AM 58.203-210, HOM).

Maucherite from Eisleben - Image

At the Bou Azzer mining district, Drâa-Tafilalet Region, Morocco, sometimes tiny crystals of maucherite appear on masses of nickeline (Minrec 38.5.384).
Deposits occur in cobalt-, nickel-, silver-, arsenic- formations. All the veins contain skutterudite, nickeline and safflorite, mostly in larger amounts, and often native silver, argentite, pyrargyrite and/or proustite, and some copper ores (Ramdohr p402)

At Los Jarales, Carratraca, Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, maucherite belongs to the later stages of magmatic differentiations of chromite and nickeline All other occurrences are typically hydrothermal (Ramdohr p402).

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