Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Krennerite

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Category
  
Telluride mineral

Strunz classification
  
2.EA.15

Space group
  
Pma2

Formula (repeating unit)
  
AuTe2

Crystal system
  
Orthorhombic

Krennerite

Crystal class
  
Pyramidal (mm2) H-M symbol: (mm2)

Krennerite is an orthorhombic gold telluride mineral which can contain a relatively small amount of silver in the structure. The formula is AuTe2 varying to (Au0.8,Ag0.2)Te2. Both of the chemically similar gold-silver tellurides, calaverite and sylvanite, are in the monoclinic crystal system, whereas krennerite is orthorhombic.

The color varies from silver-white to brass-yellow. It has a specific gravity of 8.53 and a hardness of 2.5. It occurs in high temperature, hydrothermal environments.

Krennerite was discovered in 1878 near the village of Săcărâmb, Romania, and first described by the Hungarian mineralogist Joseph Krenner (1839–1920).

References

Krennerite Wikipedia