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Formula: Cu4 (As,Sb)2S5
Sulphosalt, arsenic- and antimony-
bearing mineral
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 4.66 measured, 4.66 calculated
Hardness: 4 to 4½
Streak: Lead-grey
Colour: Silver-grey. lead-grey
Environments
Localities
At the type locality, the Teine mine, Sapporo City, Ishikari Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan,
watanabeite occurs with quartz in a hydrothermal vein. A piece of
massive silvery lead-grey ore from the National Science Museum, Tokyo, appears to consist only of watanabeite
and quartz, and a very minor amount of the
secondary copper
mineral, devilline. Subsequently, two specimens containing
watanabeite or its antimony-dominant analogue were collected from
one of the dumps of the mine, where it is embedded within quartz grains in
aggregates of tetrahedrite group minerals. An electron
microprobe survey identified inclusions of small grains of emplectite,
native bismuth and
tennantite-tetrahedrite
(MM 57.643-649).
At the Gaching occurrence, Maletoyvayam ore field, Karaginsky District, Koryak Okrug, Kamchatka Krai, Russia,
watanabeite occurs in a high sulphidation epithermal deposit
(HOM).
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