Algodonite Value, Price, and Jewelry Information
Cabochons of these arsenides are bright, silvery, and metallic and are both attractive and unusual. However, they tarnish rather quickly and the surfaces turn a drab brown and lose their luster. Cut stones are rarely seen even in collections, although they are strikingly beautiful when cut and polished to a high luster. They must be sprayed with lacquer to prevent tarnishing. Algodonite and domeykite are heat sensitive, and care must be exercised in cutting.
Algodonite Value
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Algodonite Information
| Data | Value |
| Name | Algodonite |
| Crystallography | Hexagonal crystals rare; usually massive, granular, reniforn. Domeykite is isometric. |
| Colors | Silver white to steel gray; tarnishes rapidly to a dull brown. |
| Luster | Metallic. |
| Fracture | Fracture uneven in domeykite, Subconchoidal in algodonite |
| Hardness | 3-4 (Domeykite: 3-3.5). |
| Specific Gravity | 8.38 (Domeykite: 7.92-8.10). |
| Cleavage | None |
| Stone Sizes | Cabochons could be cut to almost any size, depending on the availability of large masses of metallic rough. |
| Transparency | Opaque. |
| Formula | Cu6As (Domeykite = Cu3As). |
Occurrence: Localities that produce copper arsenide minerals.
Algodonite from Painsdale, Michigan, in fine crystals. In masses from the Algodones Mines, Coquimbo, Chile, and Cerro de Los Aeguas, Rancagua, Chile.
Mohawkite is a mixture of algodonite and other copper arsenides, from the Mohawk Mine, Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan.
Domeykite is from the Mohawk Mine, Michigan; Lake Superior district, Ontario, Canada: Guererro, Mexico; also from Chile, Germany, Sweden, and from Cornwall, England. Related minerals are found at Beloves, Czech Republic, and Mesanki, Iran.
Comments: Cabochons of these arsenides are bright, silvery, and metallic and are both attractive and unusual. However, they tarnish rather quickly and the surfaces turn a drab brown and lose their luster. Cut stones are rarely seen even in collections, although they are strikingly beautiful when cut and polished to a high luster. They must be sprayed with lacquer to prevent tarnishing. Algodonite and domeykite are heat sensitive, and care must be exercised in cutting.
Name: After he Algodones Mines, Coquimbo, Chile.
