Images
Formula: (Ag2☐)Pb3Ge2S8
Sulphide, germanium-bearing mineral
Crystal System: Isometric
Specific gravity: 5.706 calculated
Hardness: 3 to 3½
Streak: Black
Colour: Grey
Environments
Ruizhongite is a new mineral, approved in 2022 and to date (September 2023) reported only from the type
locality.
Localities
At the type locality, the Wuishe Pb-Zn deposit, Wusihe deposits, Hanyuan County, Ya'an, Sichuan, China,
ore bodies are hosted predominantly in carbonaceous shales of Lower Cambrian age (543 to 518 million years ago).
Despite the fact that the ores are either massive, disseminated, or vein-type, the mineral assemblages are similar.
The Wusihe deposit has been characterised as a Mississippi Valley-type lead -
zinc deposit that formed about 411 million years ago.
Sphalerite samples that were collected from the deposit have
germanium concentrations that range from about 3 to 1934 ppm, attributed
to the substitution of zinc.
Ruizhongite occurs as tiny disseminated grains, 1 to 10 μm in size, in close association with
galena, jordanite and
argutite in the sphalerite
matrix
(AM 108.9.1818-1823).
Back to Minerals