Calaverite
Species
Rare · AuTe₂
Gold telluride, pale brass yellow to silver white, found in Calaveras County, California, in 1861. With sylvanite it makes up the telluride ores of gold, a minor source of the metal overall, but it played a major part in the Western Australian gold rushes of the 1890s: at Kalgoorlie, once it was understood in 1896 that it held gold, there was a rush to pull down structures built with it. Hot sulfuric acid leaves a spongy mass of gold.
Identity
- Formula
- AuTe₂
- Chemical class
- Sulfide
- Also known as
- Gold telluride
- Ore of
- Gold
Crystallography
- Crystal system
- Monoclinic
- Habits
- Bladed, Prismatic, Massive, Granular
- Fracture
- Uneven
Physical properties
- Mohs hardness
- 2.5
- Density
- 9.3 g/cm³
- Luster
- Metallic
- Colors
- pale brass-yellow, silver-white
- Streak
- greenish to yellowish gray
- Transparency
- Opaque
Geology
- Origins
- Hydrothermal
- Host rocks
- Granite
- Associated minerals
- Sylvanite, Gold, Pyrite, Arsenopyrite, Tetrahedrite, Sphalerite, Stibnite
- Found in
- Hydrothermal vein (lode)
- Geography
- USA (Calaveras County, California; Cripple Creek, Colorado), Australia (Kalgoorlie), Canada (Kirkland Lake, Hemlo), Fiji (Emperor mine, Vatukoula)
Classification
- Rarity
- Rare
- Gem quality
- No
Sources
- M. Pasero and others, IMA Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification, The New IMA List of Minerals, updated September 2026. International Mineralogical Association (CNMNC), 2026.
- J. W. Anthony, R. A. Bideaux, K. W. Bladh, M. C. Nichols, Calaverite. Mineral Data Publishing, Handbook of Mineralogy, 2001.
- Calaverite. Wikipedia.
- Kalgoorlie. Wikipedia.
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