Alabandin

Synonyms: manganese shine, manganese blende, blumenbachite. Alabandin is named for the Alabanda field in Asia Minor . Represents manganese (II) sulfide - αMnS . Regulatory composition: Mn - 67-70%, S - 33-30%. It has a variety of glandular alabandine in conditions of excess iron relative to the normative composition of alabandine. Contains impurities germanium and gallium . In addition to these metals, the Alpine deposit in Yakutia contains impurities: indium (up to 300 g / t), tin , silver , lead , zinc , copper , and rarely gold .

Alabandin forms small aggregates, as well as small, large and giant crystals (up to 5 - 7 cm across, the Vysokogornoe deposit in Yakutia). Syngonia is cubic . The crystal habit is cubic, octahedral, hexaoctahedral. Twinning on {011} . Cleavage of crystals perfect in {001} . The color of the mineral varies from black to brownish-black. The gloss is semi-metallic. Hardness varies from 3.5 to 4.0. The specific gravity of 4.1. Alabandin has weakly magnetic properties.

It is found mainly in the composition of mineral impurities in hydrothermal polysulfide deposits of lead, zinc, tin, less commonly in copper and gold deposits. It is most often found in paragenesis with galena , sphalerite , cassiterite , pyrrhotite . It extremely rarely forms clusters of practically monomineral alabandinous ores in hydrothermal veins with a thickness of 0.05 to 2.0 m and a length of the first hundreds of meters (m Vysokogornoe in Yakutia). It is rare in metamorphosed manganese ores.

It can be used as a manganese mineral.

Alpine in Yakutia . World analogues of alabandin ores proper are not known. The field is not explored. The resources of almost monomineral alabandine ores in veins and vein zones on an area of ​​about 16 square meters. km make up about 3 million tons. The vertical scale of mineralization in natural yields within the ore field reaches 400 m. The average manganese contents in the ores vary between 39 - 56%.

• Kokin A., Baturin A. L. A new type of manganese mineralization // Bulletin of the State Committee for Geology No. 1 (6): Yakutsk, 2005, p. 54-66.
• Kokin A.V. Unique Manganese Object of Yakutia.- Mineral Resources of Russia. Economics and Management, No. 6,2006. C.20-23
• Gamyanin G.N., Kokin A.V. The first find of alabandin ores in East Yakutia DAN USSR, 1991, v.316, No. 5.
• Arkhipov V.N., Krylova V.V., Yanovsky V.M. Alabandin in tin-polysulfide silver veins of the Southern Verkhoyansk // Russian Geology, 1994, No. 9.

• Alabandin // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.