Coloradoite
Mineral HgTe
Take care.
- Contains mercury: Wash your hands after handling it, and never heat it: the fumes are poisonous.
About it
Black mercury telluride, usually massive in gold-telluride veins. Named for Colorado, where it was found in Boulder County; also known from Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Telluride, sphalerite group
- Formula
- HgTe
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 2.5
- Specific gravity
- 8–8.1
- Streak
- black
- Lustre
- metallic
- Crystal system
- Isometric (cubic)
- Colours
- iron black, greyish black
- Transparency
- opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- none; uneven fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.