Breithauptite Value, Price, and Jewelry Information

By Didier Descouens (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Breithauptite

Breithauptite is a curiosity cut for collectors, although it could be worn with care in jewelry. The color is extremely lovely, a delicate reddish or violet with metallic luster that is both unique and attractive. Sometimes the reddish sulfide is veined with streaks of native silver or colorless gangue minerals, providing interesting patterning to the color. The material is not very rare but is seldom encountered in cut form.

Breithauptite Information

Data Value
Name Breithauptite
Colors Light copper-red, violetish
Crystallography Hexagonal. Crystals are rare, usually massive, compact.
Luster Metallic.
Hardness 5.5
Fracture Subconchoidal to uneven
Specific Gravity 7.59-8.23
Cleavage None
Stone Sizes Massive material could cut gems to hundreds of carats but only as cabochons.
Luminescence None.
Luminescence Present No
Transparency Opaque.
Formula

NiSb
Pleochroism

Strong in reflected light.

STREAK: Reddish Brown

OCCURRENCE: In massive Ni sulfide ore bodies.

Cobalt district, Ontario, Canada; Sarrabus, Sardinia; Adreasburg, Harz, Germany.

COMMENTS: Breithauptite is a curiosity cut for collectors, although it could be worn with care in jewelry. The color is extremely lovely, a delicate reddish or violet with metallic luster that is both unique and attractive. Sometimes the reddish sulfide is veined with streaks of native silver or colorless gangue minerals, providing interesting patterning to the color. The material is not very rare but is seldom encountered in cut form.

NAME:  After G.W.A. Breithaupt, a German mineralogist.

by Joel E. Arem, Ph.D., FGA