Villamaninite, a new mineral

Abstract

Early in 1914 a parcel of copper-nickel-cobalt ore, weighing several tons, was received in London for valuation from the 'Cármenes mine, Spain'. This somewhat vague statement of locality refers without doubt to the group of mines in the district of Cármenes, province of León, situated about 6 km. E.N.E. of Viilamanín, a statisn on the railway from Gijon to León and about 40 km. N. of the latter city. The ores of these mines are described as consisting of sulphide minerals of copper, cobalt, and nickel in a gangue of dolomite.

Untitled

“…La villamaninita (de Villamanín, León), descubierta por Schoeller y Powell (1920) y descrita en principio como un sulfuro doble de cobre, hierro y níquel, con estructura tipo pirita, fue redefinida por Bayliss (1989) como el término final CUS2' con estructura tipo pirita y grupo espacial Pa3.…”

Villamaninite, a case of noncubic pyrite-type structure

“…Villamaninite, (Cu,Ni,Co,Fe)(S,Se)2, is a pyrite-type disulfide (Schoeller & Powell, 1920), assumed after recent detailed electron-probe microanalyses on samples of the type locality (Paniagua, 1989) and a new discovery in a hydrothermal chimney from the South Pacific (Oudin, Marchig, Risch, Lalou & Brichet, 1990) to include the end-member CuS 2. After a previous X-ray study (Bayliss, 1977c;Ypma, Evers & Woensdregt, 1968;Ramdohr, 1980) cubic (Pa3) symmetry has been assumed for this mineral.…”