Editorial Feature

Altaite – Occurrence, Properties, and Distribution

Jun 5 2014

Altaite was named after the locality it was found in - Altai Mountains, Kazakhstan. It belongs to the galena group.

Properties of Altaite

The following are the key properties of Altaite:

Cell Data
- Space group: Fm3m
- a = 6.439
- Z = 4

Crystal Data
- Cubic
- Point group: 4/m 3 2/m
- Rarely in very small cubes and octahedra
- Massive, as cleavages, to 1cm
- Granular, myrmekitic in other sulfides
- X-ray powder pattern: 3.23 (100), 2.29 (80), 1.443 (50), 1.314 (40), 1.859 (30), 1.610 (20), 1.074 (20)

Chemical Composition

Elements	Content 1	Content 2	Content 3
Pb	61.52	62.4	61.91
Te	38.48	37.2	38.09
Cu	-	0.4	-
Bi	-	0.2	-
Total	100.00	100.2	100.00

Optical Properties
- R: (400) 59.6, (420) 62.6, (440) 65.2, (460) 67.5, (480) 69.3, (500) 70.6, (520) 71.2, (540) 71.1, (560) 70.1, (580) 68.7, (600) 66.8, (620) 65.1, (640) 63.4, (660) 61.9, (680) 60.6, (700) 59.4

Estimated Properties

Electron density	Bulk density (electron density) = 6.63 g/cm³ note: Specific gravity of altaite = 8.28 g/cm³
Photoelectric	PE_Altaite = 1,332.84 barns/electron U = PE_Altaite x ρ electron density = 8,833.98 barns/cm³
Fermion index	Fermion index = 0.16 Boson index = 0.84
Radioactivity	Altaite is not radioactive

How to Identify Altaite

Altaite can be identified in the field by its color variations, such as tin-white, yellowish-tin-white, and bronze-yellow. Its non-magnetic, opaque form has {001} perfect, {010} perfect, {100} perfect cleavage. This mineral has a metallic luster, with black streak. The fracture on this mineral is brittle, with euhedral crystals.

The density of altaite is 8.1 to 8.2 g/cm³, with a hardness of 2.5 – approximate to a finger nail.

Global Distribution

Altaite is distributed in the following places:

Kazakhstan - In the Zavodinskii mine, near Ziryanovsk, Altai Mountains
Mexico - From the San Francisco mine, 145km north of Hermosillo, Sonora
Russia - At the Bereznyakov gold deposit, Southern Ural Mountains
Romania - From Sar¢arimb (Nagyag)
Australia - At Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Phillipines - From the Bulawan deposit, Negros Occidental
Fiji Islands -In the Tuvatu Au–Ag–Te deposit, Viti Levu
USA - In the Foote mine, Kings Mountain, Cleveland Co. North Carolina; the Red Cloud mine, Gold Hill, Boulder Co. Colorado; the Mayflower mine, Tobacco Root Mountains, Madison Co. Montana; the Hilltop mine, near Las Cruces, Dona Ana Co. New Mexico; the Stanislaus mine, Carson Hill district, Calaveras Co. California; and the Minnamax Cu–Ni–sulfide deposit, Duluth Gabbro complex, near Hibbing, St. Louis Co. Minnesota
Canada - At several mines in the Kirkland Lake area, Ontario

Occurrence of Altaite and Useful Mineral Association

Altaite occurs in hydrothermal vein Au–Te-bearing deposits.

It is often associated with minerals such as gold, silver, antimony, tellurantimony, galena, pyrite, hessite, tellurium, nagyagite, tetrahedrite, petzite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, sylvanite, calaverite, jamesonite, boulangerite, arsenopyrite, bournonite, pyrrhotite, siderite, cerussite, quartz, and aguilarite.