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Formula: Ru
Element, transition metal, platinum group element
Crystal System: Hexagonal
Specific gravity: 12.438 calculated
Hardness: 6½
Colour: Silver-white
Solubility: Unaffected by air, water and acids (ChC)
Melting point: 2330oC
Boiling point: 4150sup>oC
Abundance in the Earth’s crust: 1 part per billion by mass, 0.2 parts per billion by moles
Abundance in the Solar System: 5 parts per billion by mass, 0.06 parts per billion by moles
Common impurities: Ir,Pt,Rh,Os,Pd,Fe,Ni,Cu
Environments
Ruthenium can exist in many oxidation states, its most common being the oxidation states II, III and IV. It is found
free in nature often with the other platinum group metals. Commercially, it is
obtained from pentlandite, which contains small quantities of ruthenium
(ChC).
Localities
In Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, Samples of spinel
lherzolite, harzburgite,
dunite and chromitite from
ophiolite complexes in several localities were analyzed for the
platinum group elements. Samples of
chromitite and dunite show
relative enrichment in ruthenium and iridium and relative depletion in
platinum and palladium
(CM 22.137-149).
At the Semail Ophiolite, Ash Sharqiyah, Oman, chromitite occurs as pods
and lenses in dunite hosts within foliated
harzburgite and subordinate
lherzolite of mantle origin. The
chromitite rocks contain traces of the
platinum group minerals, in order of abundance, smallest first,
rhodium
(6 ppm), palladium, platinum,
iridium and ruthenium (135 ppm)
(CM 20.537-548).
At the type locality, the Horokanai placer, Uryugawa, Uryu District, Kamikawa Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan,
ruthenium was found included in rutheniridosmine and in
platinum in placer deposits derived from ultrabasic rocks
(Webmin).
Ruthenium-bearing minerals include:
Alloys
rutheniridosmine
Sulphides
irarsite
laurite
ruarsite
ruthenarsenite
Arsenides
anduoite
iridarsenite
omeiite
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