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Download hereGENERAL DESCRIPTION
Cuprite is a copper oxide that is formed by oxidation on the copper sulphide deposits. The crystals show cubes, octahedras and even dodecahedra and are generally well formed. They are of dark red colour, but they appear black. They can be also partially or entirely weathered into malachite. When the crystals are like needles, curprite is also named chalcotrichite.
Cuprite is, with native copper, an important copper ore.
It is very present throughout the world but only a few localities show remarkable crystals: Broken Hill (octahedras of 25 mm), the copper mine of the Hope mount in Australia, Chanarcillo in Chile, Ongaja in Namibia (chalcotrichite and octahedral up to 5 cm), the mining district of Bisbee to USA (chalcotrichite and cubic crystals of 1 cm) or Dikuluwe in Zaire (gemmeous crystals of 2cm) and Redruth area (Cornwal, the UK).
The mine of Chessy (the Rhone) and Montroc (Tarn) are two French important deposits.
The type of this species is kept in Germany at Berkwerk Akademie of Freiberg. It is an old sample catalogued originally under the name of "kupferblüthe" ("copper blood").
HISTORY : Name derived from Latin "cuprum", meaning copper
Species first described in 1845 by Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger (1795-1871), Austrian geologist and mineralogist
Type-locality: Halsbrücke, near Freiberg, Saxony, Germany
CHEMICAL FORMULA : Cu2O
CRYSTAL SYSTEM : Cubic
COLOR : Cochenillle red, ruby red, pinkish red
DIAPHANIETY : Transparent to translucent
LUSTER : Adamantine to sub-metallic
STREAK : Brownish red
MORPHOLOGIE : Cubic crystals, octahedric, dodecahedric
HARDNESS : 3,5-4,0
CHEMICAL CLASS: 6,15
DENSITY : IV - Oxides and hydroxides
GROUP : Cuprite
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 4/A.02-10
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 4.AA.10
