Tvalchrelidzeite

Hg3 (As, Sb)2S3
c 2001-2005 Mineral Data Publishing, version 1

Crystal Data: Triclinic. Point Group: 1.
well-formed crystals.

As granular aggregates, to 1 cm, without

Physical Properties:
Cleavage: Perfect in one direction. Fracture: Uneven and conchoidal.
Hardness = < 3 VHN = 172 D(meas.) = 7.380(5) D(calc.) = 7.234
Optical Properties: Translucent. Color: Lead-gray; whitish in reflected light, with strong
dark red internal reflections; in transmitted light, cherry-red. Streak: Nearly black, with adark reddish tint. Luster: Adamantine. Pleochroism: White to grayish white, pale lilac to a
distinctly greenish tint. Anisotropism: Distinct; dark olive to dark violet.
R1 –R2 : (400) 39.9–45.0, (420) 40.0–44.5, (440) 40.1–43.4, (460) 40.3–42.6, (480) 40.7–40.9, (500)40.8–39.9, (520) 40.6–38.7, (540) 39.2–37.1, (560) 37.7–35.8, (580) 36.5–34.8, (600) 35.5–34.0, (620)
34.7–33.4, (640) 33.8–32.8, (660) 33.2–32.4, (680) 32.6–32.0, (700) 32.0–31.6
Cell Data: Space Group: P 1. a = 4.39
γ = 89.98◦ Z = 1

b = 11.57

c = 15.67

α = 88.17◦

β = 90.01◦

X-ray Powder Pattern: Gomi deposit, Georgia.
3.49 (100), 2.92 (100), 2.89 (100), 2.080 (100), 3.29 (70), 2.031 (35), 3.19 (30)
Chemistry:HgCu
FeSb
As
S

(1)
66.50

13.75
8.60
10.95(2)
66.1
0.15
0.11
12.9
8.54
10.3

(3)
66.4

14.0
8.4
10.9

Total 99.80
98.1
99.7(1) Gomi deposit, Georgia; by electron microprobe, average of two analyses; corresponding toHg2.91 (As1.01 Sb0.99 )Σ=2.00 S3.00 . (2) Tyute deposit, Russia; by electron microprobe, corresponding
to Hg3.00 Cu0.02 Fe0.02 (As1.04 Sb0.96 )Σ=2.00 S2.92 . (3) Chauvai deposit, Russia; by electronmicroprobe, corresponding to Hg2.92 (Sb1.01 As0.99 )Σ=2.00 S2.99 .
Occurrence:

In gold-bearing hydrothermal As–Sb–Hg deposits.

Association: Cinnabar, metacinnabar, realgar, mercurian tennantite, mercury, cubanite,
pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, marcasite, fluorite, quartz.
Distribution: From the Gomi deposit, Caucasus Mountains, Georgia [TL]. At the Tyute
mercury deposit, Altai Mountains, Russia. In the Chauvai Sb–Hg deposit, Fergana Valley, AlaiRange, southern Kyrgyzstan. From the Hemlo gold deposit, Thunder Bay district, Ontario,Canada. At the Getchell mine, Potosi district, Humboldt Co., Nevada, USA.
Name: In honor of Academician Aleksander Antonovich Tvalchrelidze (1881–1957), founder ofthe Georgian Mineralogical-Petrographic School, Tbilisi University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Type Material: A.E. Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia,77110; National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., USA, 143827.
References: (1) Gruzdev, V.S., N.M. Mchedlishvili, G.A. Terekhova, Z.Y. Tsertsvadze, N.M.
Chernitsova, and N.G. Shumkova (1975) Tvalchrelidzeite, Hg12 (Sb, As)8 S15 , a new mineral

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permission of Mineral Data Publishing.

from the Gomi arsenic–antimony–mercury deposit, Caucasus. Doklady Acad. Nauk SSSR,225, 911–913 (in Russian). (2) (1977) Amer. Mineral., 62, 174 (abs. ref. 1). (3) Vasil’ev, V.I.
(1979) The second discovery of tvalchrelidzeite Hg12 (Sb, As)8 S15 in ores of mercury deposits.
Geol. Geofiz., 9, 159–162 (in Russian with English abs.). (4) (1980) Chem. Abs., 92, 25693(abs. ref. 3). (5) Krapiva, L.Y, V.I. Stepanov, G.N. Nechelyustov, and V.Y. Volgin (1986)
New data on tvalchrelidzeite Hg12 (As, Sb)8 S12 . Doklady Acad. Nauk SSSR, 290, 1208–1212 (inRussian). (6) Pobedimskaya, Y.A., N.V. Belov, L.N. Kaplunnik, and I.V. Petrova (1980) The
crystal chemistry of the series of Pb and Hg sulfosalts, in: Sulfosalts, platinum minerals, and ore
microscopy. Nauka Press, Moscow, 49–58 (in Russian with English abs.).

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted inany form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior writtenpermission of Mineral Data Publishing.