Laurite - Encyclopedia
Class : Sulfides and sulfosalts
Subclass : Sulfides
Crystal system : Cubic
Chemistry : RuS2
Rarity : Rare
Laurite is a ruthenium sulfide which forms a continuous series with erlichmanite, the osmium sulfide. It is found in tumbled millimeter grains in platinoid placers and in ultrabasic chromium and platinum complexes. It was named thus by its discoverer, Friedrich Wöhler, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany, in honor of the wife of his friend Charles Arad Joy, an American chemist at Columbia University. Laurite can form octahedral, cubic or pyritohedra crystals up to 1 mm.
Main photo : Laurite from Verkhneivinsk, Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia © Jolyon Ralph
Laurite in the World
Twinning
No twin known for this mineral species.
Fakes and treatments
No fakes recorded for this mineral species.
Hardness : 7 to 7.5
Density : 6.43
Fracture : Sub-conchoidal
Streak : Gray
TP : Opaque
RI : -
Birefringence : 0
Optical character : None
Pleochroism : None
Fluorescence : None
Solubility : Insoluble
Magnetism : NoneRadioactivity : None