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Formula: Cu1+x(Sn,Sb)
Alloy of copper, tin and/or
antimony, forms a solid solution with
breithauptite (CM 44(6).1469-1480)
Crystal System: Hexagonal
Specific gravity: 7.6 calculated
Hardness: 5 to 5½
Colour: Pinkish tin-white
Environments
Placer deposits
Hydrothermal environments
Sorosite occurs in gold and
platinum group placer deposits derived from sulphide-poor
clinopyroxinite-gabbro
intrusions
(Webmin).
Localities
At the Mir mound, Trans-Atlantic Geotraverse hydrothermal field (TAG), Mid-Atlantic Ridge complex, Atlantic Ocean,
sorosite occurs in a sorosite-bearing native tin and
lead assemblage
(Mindat).
At the Tamaña River, Novita Municipality, Chocó Department, Colombia, sorosite occurs in concentrates from
precious metal placers associated with tin and
stistaite
(HOM).
The type locality is the Baimka placer deposit, Aluchinskii Massif, Baimka River, Bol'shoi Anyui River Basin,
Kolyma area,
Bilibinsky District, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. Here sorosite occurs as crystals to 0.4 mm in length and
grains. It forms inclusions in antimony-bearing native
tin, often intergrown with
stistaite, and
associated with herzenbergite, native
lead, and trace cassiterite.
(AM 83.901-906). The sorosite likely crystallised from a late-stage or residual
tin–antimony–copper–iron–nickel-bearing
liquid. Crystallisation occurred over a temperature range greater than 415° to 227°C. A mineralised
mafic rock (gabbro,
gabbro–diorite or
clinopyroxenite) associated with a
gabbro–diorite–syenite-monzonite
complex in the placer area could be a potential primary source for
the sorosite-bearing mineralisation.
(CM 44(6).1469-1480)
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