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Etymology and history

Alabandite was first described in 1784 by Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein.¹ The mineral name is derived from its supposed discovery locality at Alabanda (Aïdin) in Turkey.²

Occurrence

Alabandite forms in epithermal polymetallic sulfide veins and low-temperature manganese deposits. It occurs with acanthite, calcite, chalcopyrite, galena, pyrite, quartz, rhodochrosite, rhodonite, sphalerite and native tellurium. Sometimes it was found in meteorites.³

Localities are several areas in Antarctica, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, India, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, the US, Uzbekistan and Yemen. All together at present time approximately 220 discovery sites are registered.

Crystal structure

Alabandite crystallizes in the cubic crystal system in the space group Fm3m with the lattice parameter a = 5.22 Å⁴ and four formula units per unit cell.⁵

See also

• List of minerals

References

1. "www.mineral.hermuz.hu - A Kárpát-övezetben felfedezett ásványok". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2010-01-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201052/http://www.mineral.hermuz.hu/kiadv_4.htm ↩

2. Mindat.org http://www.mindat.org/min-89.html ↩

3. Handbook of Mineralogy http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/alabandite.pdf ↩

4. American Mineralogist Crystal Structure Database - Alabandite (1991) http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/AMS/result.php?mineral=Alabandite ↩

5. Handbook of Mineralogy http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/alabandite.pdf ↩