THE MINERAL SPERRYLITE


Sperrylite is a rare, but economically important mineral. Although not found in very many places around the world, and in all but one of these it is a minor constituent, sperrylite is an important ore of platinum. In fact, besides native platinum, it is the only platinum ore of any significance. Sperrylite is found in abundance only at Sudbury, Ontario where it is mined for its extremely valuable metal.

Sperrylite is a cousin of the much more common and well known mineral, pyrite. Both belong to the Pyrite Group of minerals and share a similar structure and therefore similar crystal habits. They can not be mistaken for each other however since pyrite is brassy yellow and sperrylite is tin white in color.

Pyrite's and sperrylite's structure is analogous to galena's structure with a formula of PbS. Galena though has a higher symmetry. The difference between the two structures is that the single sulfur of galena is replaced by a pair of sulfurs in sperrylite. The sulfur pair are covalently bonded together in essentially an elemental bond. This pair disrupts the four fold symmetry that a single atom of sulfur would have preserved and thus gives sperrylite a lower symmetry than Galena.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

 

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