Reniérite(Cu, Zn)11Fe4 (Ge, As)2S16
c 2001-2005 Mineral Data Publishing, version 1

Crystal Data: Tetragonal, pseudocubic. Point Group: 42m. As rare equant crystals, to3 mm; disseminated granular aggregates, irregular patches, and as regular lamellae replacing
germanite grains. Twinning: Polysynthetic.
Physical Properties:
Hardness = 3.5 VHN = 340–363, 351 average (25 g load).
D(meas.) = 4.38 D(calc.) = 4.40 Magnetic.
Optical Properties: Opaque. Color: Bronze; in polished section, orange-brown.
Luster: Metallic. Pleochroism: Orange to brown or bronze with violet tint.
Anisotropism: Strong, yellow to reddish orange.
R1 –R2 : (400) 19.6–20.3, (420) 19.1–19.8, (440) 18.7–19.3, (460) 18.7–19.0, (480) 19.8–19.4, (500)21.9–20.8, (520) 24.5–23.0, (540) 27.1–25.3, (560) 29.6–27.5, (580) 31.2–29.4, (600) 32.6–30.9, (620)
33.8–32.1, (640) 34.7–33.1, (660) 35.3–33.7, (680) 35.6–34.2, (700) 36.0–34.6
Cell Data:

Space Group: P 42c. a = 10.6226(5)c = 10.5506(8)Z=2X-ray Powder Pattern: Kipushi, Congo.
3.06 (100), 1.87 (80), 1.595 (60), 2.65 (30), 1.214 (30), 4.31 (20), 1.083 (20)
Chemistry:CuFeZnPb

(1)
41.63
13.73
3.53
trace

(2)
41.6
13.0
2.7

GeGa
AsS

(1)
7.75
0.87
31.51

(2)
7.3
0.5
2.0
32.6

Total 99.02
99.7(1) Kipushi, Congo; corresponds to (Cu10.67 Zn0.88 )Σ=11.55 Fe4.00 (Ge1.74 As0.19 )Σ=1.93 S16.00 .
(2) Tsumeb, Namibia; by electron microprobe, corresponds to (Cu10.30 Zn0.65 )Σ=10.95
Fe3.66 (Ge1.58 As0.42 Ga0.11 )Σ=2.11 S16.00 .
Occurrence:

Rare in some Ge-bearing hydrothermal polymetallic deposits.

Association:

Germanite, tennantite, enargite, digenite, bornite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite.

Distribution: From the Prince-Léopold mine, Kipushi, 28 km southwest of Lubumbashi,
Katanga Province, Congo (Shaba Province, Zaire) [TL]. At M’Passa, 150 km west of Brazzaville,
Niari Province, Congo Republic. From Tsumeb, Namibia. At Kabwe (Broken Hill), Zambia. In
Bulgaria, in the Chelopech deposit, Sofia, and at the Radka deposit, Pazardzhik. From Akhtala,Armenia. At the San Giovanni mine, Iglesiente, Sardinia, Italy. In the Repparfjord copper deposit,Finnmark, Norway. At Vaygach, Arkhangel’sk; the Urup deposit, Caucasus Mountains, andother less-well-defined localities in Russia. In Japan, at the Shakanai and Furutobe mines, Akita
Prefecture. From the Rajpura-Dariba polymetallic deposit, Udaipur district, Rajasthan, India. In
the Ruby Creek deposit, southern Brooks Range, Alaska; and at the Inexco #1 mine, Jamestown,
Boulder Co., Colorado, USA. From Pinar del Rio, Cuba.
Name: For Armand Marie Vincent Joseph Reniér (1876–1951), Belgian geologist and Directorof the Belgian Geological Survey.
Type Material:

National School of Mines, Paris, France.

References: (1) Vaes, J.F. (1948) La reniérite (anciennement appelée “bornite orange”) unsulfure germanifère provenant de la Mine Prince-Léopold, Kipushi (Congo Belge). Ann. (Bull.)
Soc. Géol. Belgique, 72, 20–32 (in French). (2) (1950) Amer. Mineral., 35, 136 (abs. ref. 1).
(3) Murdoch, J. (1953) X-ray investigation of colusite, germanite and reniérite. Amer. Mineral.,38, 794–801. (4) Springer, G. (1969) Microanalytical investigations into germanite, renierite,briartite, and gallite. Neues Jahrb. Mineral., Monatsh., 435–441. (5) Bernstein, L.R. (1986)
Renierite, Cu10 ZnGe2 Fe4 S16 —Cu11 GeAsFe4 S16 : a coupled solid solution series. Amer. Mineral.,71, 210–221. (6) Bernstein, L.R., D.G. Reichel, and S. Merlino (1989) Renierite crystal structurerefined from Reitveld analysis of powder neutron-diffraction data. Amer. Mineral., 74, 1177–1181.
(7) Criddle, A.J. and C.J. Stanley, Eds. (1993) Quantitative data file for ore minerals, 3rd ed.
Chapman & Hall, London, 479.
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