Sperrylite
Species
Rare · PtAs₂
Platinum arsenide in tin white cubes and cubo-octahedra, the commonest platinum mineral, met in every kind of platinum deposit and surviving weathering into placers. Found in 1889 by the chemist Francis Sperry while assaying ore of the Vermilion mine at Sudbury, Ontario; a platinum source of the Sudbury nickel ores, the Bushveld and Norilsk.
Identity
- Formula
- PtAs₂
- Chemical class
- Sulfide
- Ore of
- Platinum
Crystallography
- Crystal system
- Cubic
- Habits
- Cubic, Octahedral, Rounded
- Fracture
- Conchoidal
Physical properties
- Mohs hardness
- 6.5
- Density
- 10.58 g/cm³
- Luster
- Metallic
- Colors
- tin white
- Streak
- black
- Transparency
- Opaque
Geology
- Origins
- Igneous, Sedimentary
- Host rocks
- Volcanic rock, River gravels and sands
- Associated minerals
- Pyrrhotite, Pentlandite, Chalcopyrite, Cooperite, Magnetite, Chromite
- Found in
- Placer deposit
- Geography
- Canada (Vermilion mine, Sudbury, Ontario), South Africa (Merensky Reef, Bushveld), Russia (Talnakh, Norilsk), USA (Stillwater, Montana), Australia (Kambalda)
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, Sperrylite. Mineral Data Publishing, Handbook of Mineralogy, 2001.
- Sperrylite. Wikipedia.
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