Taimyrite

taimyrite

tatyanaite

sobolevskite

talnakhite

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Formula: (Pd,Pt)9Cu3Sn4
Alloy
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 15.6
Hardness: 5
Colour: Bronze-grey
Solubility: Not etched by dilute or concentrated mineral acids
Common impurities: Pb,Sb
Environments

Plutonic igneous environments

Localities

At the type locality, the Mayak mine, Talnakh Cu-Ni Deposit, Noril'sk, Putoran Plateau, Taimyr Peninsula, Taymyrskiy Autonomous Okrug, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, taimyrite occurs as grains and veinlets up to 12 mm in diameter near the contact between sulphide and rock-forming minerals in gabbro-dolerite and in chalcopyrite-galena concentrations in massive sulphide ores. Associated minerals include küstelite, electrum, copper-rich gold, polarite, sperrylite, froodite, sobolevskite, atokite, rustenburgite, tatyanaite, mooihoekite, talnakhite, chalcopyrite, pentlandite, cubanite, pyrrhotite, galena and sphalerite (AM 68.1248-1252, HOM, Mindat).

At the Oktyabrsky Mine, Talnakh Cu-Ni Deposit, Noril'sk, Putoran Plateau, Taimyr Peninsula, Taymyrskiy Autonomous Okrug, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, an extensive solid-solution series between taimyrite and tatyanaite occurs, and taimyritetatyanaite forms a solid-solution series with cabriite. These platinum-group minerals occur in base-metal sulphide ores in the deposit. The taimyritetatyanaite is present as single grains and aggregates, associated with a silver-gold alloy, and also as zoned intergrowths of platinum-palladium-copper stannides. These intergrowths commonly, but not necessarily, occur within chalcopyrite (CM 38.599-609). A characteristic association of altaite intergrown with sobolevskite and taimyrite occurs within talnakhitegalena rich ores. Associated minerals include a silver-gold alloy and minor amounts of froodite, paolovite, sperrylite and "plumbopolarite" Pd(Bi,Pb) (CM 40.329-340).

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