Vinciennite

vinciennite

stannite

enargite

colusite

Images

Formula: Cu10Fe4SnAsS16
Sulphide, tin- and arsenic- bearing mineral
Crystal System: Tetragonal
Specific gravity: 4.29 calculated
Hardness: 4½
Colour: Orange
Common impurities: Zn
Environments


Hydrothermal environments

Vinciennite occurs associated with pyrite, chalcopyrite, colusite, stannite, stannoidite, mawsonite, bornite, enargite, tetrahedrite-tennantite, quartz and baryte (HOM).

Localities

At the Radka Mine, Levski, Panagyurishte Municipality, Pazardzhik Province, Bulgaria, the assemblage in the vinciennite-bearing high-sulphidation epithermal deposit consists of enargite, copper-excess tennantite, chalcopyrite, gold, vinciennite, colusite and minor covellite, within a gangue of baryte, illite and quartz. The assemblage was formed by oxidised and slightly acid fluids at a temperature of about 275oC (CM 42.1501-1521).

At the Maggie Mine, Cache Creek, Kamloops Mining Division, British Columbia, Canada, the copper sulphides in the copper-molybdenum zone have a zonal arrangement in which a core of chalcopyrite plus minor bornite progresses outward to chalcopyrite, then to chalcopyrite +/- tennantite; peripheral to these is the assemblage tennantite - sphalerite - galena. Veinlets of the peripheral assemblage are late in the depositional sequence and cut the copper-molybdenum mineralisation and some pyrite veinlets.
In one drillhole the peripheral assemblage was found to occur in quartz - pyrite veinlets. The veinlet pyrite is coarsely crystalline and contains scattered blebs of pyrrhotite. Tennantite occurs abundantly along the boundary of pyrite grains. Associated with some of the tennantite are intergrowths of chalcopyrite-bornite and lesser amounts of chalcopyrite-bornite-digenite. Also present are small amounts of galena and sphalerite; as well, small scattered grains of tin-bearing sulphides, one of which is vinciennite, occur sparingly in the other sulphides, especially tennantite (CM 25.227-228).

At the type locality, the Chizeuil Mine, Chalmoux, Charolles, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, vinciennite occurs as grains up to 1 mm in size associated with minerals of the tetrahedrite subgroup and tennantite subgroup, and with stannite, quartz, pyrite, enargite, colusite, bornite and albite (Mindat).

Back to Minerals