DOLOMITE CHALCOPYRITE
Mineral specimen of Dolomite Chalcopyrite and Quartz. Great contrast of colours with the white Dolomite and sparkling Chalcopyrite with Quartz on a grey host matrix.
Location:
Sweetwater Mine, Ozark Lead Company, Ellington, Missouri, USA.
Dimensions:
6.8cm x 3.7cm x 4.2cm, 98g.
Calcium Magnesium Carbonate: CaMg(CO3)2.
Dolomite named for the French mineralogist Deodat de Dolomieu. A common sedimentary rock forming mineral that can be found in massive beds several hundred feet thick. Dolomite rock is one of the sedimentary rocks that undergoes a significant mineralogical change once deposited. Deposited as Calcite Aragonite rich limestones. During a process called diagenesis the Calcite Aragonite is altered to Dolomite. The process is not metamorphism but something just short of that. Magnesium rich ground waters with a significant amount of salinity are crucial and warm tropical near ocean environments are probably the best source of dolomite formation.
Chalcopyrite: CuFeS2.
Named in 1725 by Johann Friedrich Henckel from the Greek “chalkos”, copper, and “pyrites”, strike fire.
A major ore of copper. Common in sulfide veins and disseminated in igneous rocks. Weathering may lead to the formation of malachite, azurite, brochantite, langite and numerous other secondary copper minerals.