LAURITE

    Class : Sulfides and sulfosalts
    Subclass : Sulfides
    Crystal system : Cubic
    Chemistry : RuS2
    Rarity : Rare

Laurite is a ruthenium sulfide which forms a continuous series with erlichmanite, the osmium sulfide. It is found in tumbled millimeter grains in platinoid placers and in ultrabasic chromium and platinum complexes. It was named thus by its discoverer, Friedrich Wöhler, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany, in honor of the wife of his friend Charles Arad Joy, an American chemist at Columbia University. Laurite can form octahedral, cubic or pyritohedra crystals up to 1 mm.

Main photo : Laurite from Verkhneivinsk, Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia © Jolyon Ralph

Laurite in the World

Laurite is reported from the platinum-bearing placers of Alaska (Goodnews Bay), Indonesia (Pontijn) and Sierra Leone (Guma Water) as well as from the ultrabasic chromium-platinoid complexes of the Merensky Reef in the Bushveld (Africa South), Stillwater (Montana) and Russia (Aldan Region, Urals).

Laurite in France

In France, laurite is reported in the peridotites of Etang de Lers (Ariège), at Lescheroux (Ain) and in the ophiolites of New Caledonia.

Twinning

No twin known for this mineral species.

Fakes and treatments

No fakes recorded for this mineral species.


Hardness : 7 to 7.5
Density : 6.43
Fracture : Sub-conchoidal
Streak : Gray

TP : Opaque
RI : -
Birefringence : 0
Optical character : None
Pleochroism : None
Fluorescence : None

Solubility : Insoluble

Magnetism : NoneRadioactivity : None