Alabandite - Encyclopedia
Class : Sulfides and sulfosalts
Subclass : Sulfides
Crystal System : Cubic
Chemistry : MnS
Rarity : Fairly common
Alabandite is a manganese sulfide found in epithermal gold, silver and manganese deposits where it is associated with rhodochrosite, rhodonite, galena and sphalerite. It can be encountered anectodotically in meteorites. It owes its name to its place of discovery : Alabanda in Turkey. It is a mineral which most often massive or lamellar with perfect cleavage, quite rarely in cubic, cubo-octahedral and dodecahedral crystals of black color tarnishing in greenish brown. Its role as a manganese ore is very marginal due to its relative rarity.
Alabandite in the World
Twinning
The twins are known and parallel to {111}.
Fakes and treatments
No fake reported for this mineral species.
Hardness : 3.5 to 4
Density : 3.95 to 4.04
Fracture : Irregular
Trace : Dark green to brown
TP : Opaque
RI : Not measurable
Birefringence : None
Optical character : None
Pleochroism : None
Fluorescence : None
Solubility : Hydrochloric acid
Magnetism : None
Radioactivity : None