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Formula: CoSbS
Sulphide of cobalt and antimony,
löllingite group, orthorhombic high-temperature
paramorph of costibite, that is
also orthorhombic
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 6.9 to 6.97 measured
Hardness: 7
Colour: White with a faint greyish tinge
Common impurities: Fe,Ni,As
Environments
Metamorphic environments
Hydrothermal environments
Localities
At the type locality, the Trout Bay Copper Mine, Mulcahy Township, Kenora District, Ontario, Canada, paracostibite was
found in a drill core from a massive base-metal sulphide ore in a carbonatised
chlorite-anthophyllite
schist. The principal opaque minerals in the ore consist of coarse grains and
inclusions of
pyrrhotite,
sphalerite and chalcopyrite.
There are lesser amounts of galena,
marcasite, arsenopyrite,
cobaltite, pyrargyrite,
paracostibite, gudmundite,
stannite, silver-bearing
tetrahedrite, antimonial silver,
allargentum, ilmenite,
breithauptite, cassiterite
and nisbite.
Paracostibite was found in several sections as irregular and subhedral grains up to about 130 microns in size, in
an assemblage of sphalerite, paracostibite,
pyrargyrite, pyrrhotite,
antimonial silver, galena and
chalcopyrite. It was never found in close proximity to
arsenopyrite or cobaltite but did
occur in one section where these two minerals also occurred
(CM 10.232-246, HOM ).
At the Gruvåsen and Getön mines, Persberg ore district, Filipstad, Värmland County, Sweden,
costibite, paracostibite, nisbite
and cobalt-bearing ullmannite are found
associated together for the first time. The minerals were probably formed by remobilisation of
cobalt from older sulphides by hydrothermal solutions during emplacement of younger
granite
(CM 18.165-171). Other associated minerals include chalcopyrite,
pyrrhotite, galena,
sphalerite and gersdorffite
(HOM).
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