Oct 21 2013
Luberoite was discovered in 1992 in Lubero, Democratic Republic of Congo, and is named after its place of discovery.
Properties of Luberoite
The key physical properties of Luberoite are as below:
- Cell Data
- Space Group =P21 /C
- a= 6.584 (5)
- b= 4.602 (3)
- c=11.10 (1)
- Z = 2
- Crystal Data
- Monoclinic
- Point Group – 2/m
- Crystals – granular fragments with angular edges due to cleavage, typically elongated, to 0.5 mm, or rounded due to alluvial transport; maybe enclosed in platinum.
Twinning: commonly photosynthetic on {001}
- X-ray powder pattern: Mutishi, Congo
1.875 (100B), 2.93 (80), 1.812 (70), 5.45 (60), 3.27 (60), 2.78 (60), 2.465 (60)
- Chemical Composition
| Elements |
Content 1 |
Content 2 |
Content 3 |
| Pt |
75.76 |
75.6 |
75.54 |
| Pd |
- |
0.4 |
- |
| Se |
24.24 |
24.1 |
24.46 |
- Optical Properties
- Opaque
- Lustre – metallic
- Color- dark bronze, white with greenish yellow hue in reflected light
- Optical Class – Biaxial
- Estimated Properties
| Electron density |
Bulk density (electron density)= 12 g/cm3
note: Specific gravity of Luberoite = 14.8 g/cm3 |
| Photoelectric |
PELuberoite = 1222.12 barns/electron
U=PELuberoite x ρelectron density= 14686.41 barns/cm3 |
| Fermion index |
Fermion index = 0.27
Boson index = 0.73 |
Radioactivity
|
GRapi = 0 (Gamma Ray American Petroleum Institute Units)
Luberoite is not radioactive. |
How to Identify Luberoite
The color of luberoite is dark bronze, in the presence of reflected light it exhibits a white and greenish yellow hue.
Global Distribution
Luberoite is found only in the Mutushi, Lubero district in the Kivu province of Congo.
Occurrence of Luberoite and Useful Mineral Association
Luberoite occurs in the placers derived from the granodioritic source rocks.
Luberoite is associated with platinum, florencite, anatase, gorceixite, chlorite and quartz.
References