Briartite

Briartite is an opaque iron-grey metallic lustrous sulfurous crystalline stannite mineral found as inclusions in other Germanium-Gallium-bearing sulfides.

It was discovered at the Prince Leopold Mine, Kipushi, Shaba, Zaire in 1965 by Francotte and others, and named for Gaston Briart who had studied formations at Kipushi.

Briartite is also found in Namibia, Greece, and Spain.

Chemical Formula: Cu₂ (Zn,Fe) Ge S₄ with traces of Ga;Sn

See American Mineralogist, volume 051, pp. 1816(1966); American Mineralogist, volume 080, pp. 849(1995)

Web links

• http://www.mindat.org/min-773.html
• http://webmineral.com/data/Briartite.shtml