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Cuprite

MNHN N°25.270

visu_146 infos

FROM : Chessy-les-Mines, Rhône, France
SIZE : 2.2 x 2.2 x 2.5 cm

general description

Here are octaedric crystals of cuprite coat with malachite and sometimes with azurite. The set of crystals are said "floating" since they have developped in clay, there is no spot attached to the matrix. The whole sample measures 2.2 x 2.2 x 2.5 cm.

This sample comes from the copper mine of Chessy in France. It comes from the Balthazar Sage collection, whch, at his death, was divided between the Ecole des Mines of Paris and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.

It is kept in the storage rooms of the collections of the Muséum (i.e., not yet displayed to the public).

Photography: Louis-Dominique Bayle, © MNHN.

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The Species page

Identity card

SPECIE : Cuprite

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
MORPHOLOGY : Cubic crystals, octahedric, dodecahedric
HARDNESS : 3,5-4,0
DENSITY : 6,15

CHEMICAL CLASS : IV - Oxydes, hydroxydes
GROUP : Cuprite
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 4/A.02-10
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 4.AA.10

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