Getchellite


Getchellite is a rare sulfide of arsenic and antimony, AsSbS3, that was discovered by B. G. Weissberg of the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1963, and approved as a new species by the International Mineralogical Association in 1965. Many metal sulfides are grey to black, but a few are brightly colored. Orpiment is yellow to brownish gold, cinnabar is deep red and getchellite is a bright orange red.

Thermal properties

Getchellite turns darker red when heated, becoming black by the time it reaches its melting point. Close to this temperature it sublimes and recrystallizes on cooler surfaces as minute acicular black crystals.
Melting point: 340 °C to 355 °C. Boiling point: near 470 °C.

Structure

Each of the semimetal atoms, arsenic and antimony, is bonded to three sulfur atoms to form a trigonal pyramid characteristic of elements in group V of the periodic table. These S3 pyramids form 8-membered 8S8 rings which in turn combine to form sheets parallel to, with each sulfur atom bonded to two semimetal atoms. The occupancy of the metal sites is disordered, and within the sheets the 8-membered rings are orientated normal to the plane of the sheet. The sheet structure is responsible for the cleavage and twin planes of getchellite
Unit cell a = 11.949 Å; b = 9.028 Å; c = 10.130 Å; β= 116.15°; V = 980.9 Å3; Z = 8. Space group P21/a.

Powder diffraction

Discovery

In August 1962 Weissberg visited the Getchell mine at Adam Peak, about 32 km northeast of Golconda, in Humboldt County, Nevada, US. The purpose of his visit was to collect samples for a study of the relationship between various fairly common sulfides, not to look for new minerals. Getchellite was in some of the samples, but it was not discovered until the rocks were re-examined, a year later. The new mineral was named after the Getchell Mine, which in turn became the type locality. Samples from the mine are preserved as type material, at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., US.

Environment

At the type locality getchellite is found in an epithermal arsenical gold deposit in a narrow, steeply dipping fault zone cutting across interbedded shales, argillites and limestones, near an intrusion of granodiorite.
Associated minerals are orpiment, realgar, stibnite, cinnabar and quartz, as well as galkhaite, laffittite, chabournéite, christite, lorandite, marcasite, barite, fluorite and calcite.

Distribution

Getchellite is found at the type locality in Nevada, United States, and also in Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Japan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

Synthesis

Getchellite has been synthesized from As3SbS6 glass in sodium sulfide solutions at 2600 C. and 1,000 bars pressure.