TELLURIUM
Tellurium (Te) is a semimetal/metalloid that can occur
in its native state as a mineral. It has a metallic luster, a bright
silvery color, a grayish streak, is rather soft (H = 2 to 2.5), and is heavy
for its size. It is not malleable. Tellurium can break along
several cleavage planes.
Tellurium is best known from precious metal telluride
deposits, such as the Cripple Creek Mining District of Colorado, USA. In
such deposits, Te is usually mixed with various metals and semimetals (e.g.,
Au, Ag, Pb, Ni, Fe, Bi, Sb). See calaverite & sylvanite.
Tellurium (= silver-colored mass at top-center) (field of view 2.7 cm across) in
a quartz-pyrite hydrothermal vein (white = quartz; brassy gold = pyrite),
hosted in altered porphyritic shoshonite lava (see rock matrix at right).
Deposit & Age: Emperor Gold-Silver Telluride Deposit, Mba
Volcanics, Miocene.
Locality:
Emperor Mine, near Vatukoula, Tavua Gold Field, northern Viti Levu, western
Fiji Islands, southwest-central Pacific Basin (17º 30' 24" S, 177º 51'
12" E).