Hemusite Explained

Hemusite
Category:	Sulfosalt minerals, Sulfides
Formula:	Cu6SnMoS8
Imasymbol:	Hm^[1]
Dana:	2.9.6.1
Strunz:	2.CB.35a (10 ed) 2/C.09-10 (8 ed)
Color:	gray
System:	Isometric
Symmetry:	P432 (no. 207), F3m (no. 216), or Fmm (no. 225)
Mohs:	4
Luster:	metallic
Density:	4.469
Diaphaneity:	Opaque
References:	^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6]

Hemusite (IMA symbol: Hm) is a very rare isometric gray mineral containing copper, molybdenum, sulfur, and tin with chemical formula Cu₆SnMoS₈. It was discovered by Bulgarian mineralogist Georgi Ivanov Terziev in 1963. He also described it and named it after Haemus, the ancient name of Stara planina (Balkan) mountains in Europe. The type locality is Chelopech copper ore deposit, Bulgaria. Later tiny deposits of hemusite were found in Ozernovskoe deposit, Kamchatka, Russia; Kawazu mine, Rendaiji, Shimoda city, Chūbu region, Honshu Island, Japan; Iriki mine, Iriki, Satsuma-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu Region, Japan; Kochbulak deposit, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.^[7] Hemusite occurs as rounded isometric grains and aggregates usually about 0.05 mm in diameter and in association with enargite, luzonite, colusite, stannoidite, renierite, tennantite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and other minerals.

See also

• List of minerals recognized by the International Mineralogical Association

Further reading

• 10.2465/minerj.14.92 . Hemusite and paraguanajuatite from the Kawazu mine, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan . 1988 . Shimizu . Masaaki . Kato . Akira . Matsubara . Satoshi . Mineralogical Journal . 14 . 3 . 92. 1988MinJ...14...92S . free .
• Book: Gaines, Richard V. . Skinner . H. Catherine W. . Foord . Eugene E. . Mason . Brian . Rosenzweig . Abraham . King . Vendall . Dana's New Mineralogy: The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana . New York, Chichester, Weinheim, Brisbane, Singapore, Toronto . John Wiley & Sons, Inc. . 1997 . registration . 93.

Notes and References

1. Warr. L.N.. 2021. IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols. Mineralogical Magazine. 85. 3. 291–320. 10.1180/mgm.2021.43. 2021MinM...85..291W. 235729616. free.
2. Hemusite – A Complex Copper-Tin-Molybdenum Sulfide from the Chelopech Ore Deposit, Bulgaria . G. . Terziev . Georgi Ivanov Terziev . 1971 . The American Mineralogist . 56 . 11–12 . 1847.
3. Web site: Information about Hemusite . Webmineral Database.
4. Web site: Information about Hemusite . Mindat Database.
5. Web site: Information about Hemusite . Handbook of Mineralogy.
6. Web site: Hemusite . RRUFF Database.
7. Web site: Information about Hemusite . Mineralienatlas Lexicon.