Formula: Fe3+2(Te4+O3)2(SO4).3H2O
Tellurite
Specific gravity: 3.75
Hardness: 2½
Streak: Light yellow
Colour: Yellow, brownish yellow, greenish yellow
Environments
Localities
At the El Plomo Mine, Ojojona, Tegucigalpa, Distrito Central, Francisco Morazán Department, Honduras, poughite
has been found associated with mandarinoite
(HOM).
At the type locality, the Moctezuma mine, Moctezuma, Moctezuma Municipality, Sonora, Mexico, poughite occurs as
an alteration product of pyrite in the oxidised zone of the hydrothermal
gold-tellurium deposit (HOM).
The first report of the mineral cited two specimens. One specimen from the mine dump was a piece of
limonite-stained quartz
breccia abundantly coated with drusy crusts and small botryoidal rosettes
of poughite, with small amounts of pyrite in corroded grains which were
in the process of being altered to limonite. Another specimen was a piece of
vein quartz coated along cracks and in vugs with
emmonsite and minor limonite, and
some corroded pyrite grains. Some of the
emmonsite was replaced by a crust of crystals of poughite. Other
minerals on the specimen were a uranyl tellurite and crystals of jarosite
perched on hairs of emmonsite
(AM 53.1075-1080).
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