Talnakhite is a

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

chalcopyrite Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a Mohs scale, hardness of 3.5 to 4 ...

group with formula: Cu₉(Fe, Ni)₈S₁₆. It was named after the

Talnakh Talnakh ( rus, Тална́х, p=tɐɫˈnax) is a district (''raion'') of Norilsk, located about north of the Central District at the foot of the Putorana Mountains in Taymyr Peninsula, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Formerly a town, it was merged into ...

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

deposit, near

Norilsk Norilsk ( rus, Нори́льск, p=nɐˈrʲilʲsk) is a closed city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located south of the western Taymyr Peninsula, around 90 km east of the Yenisei, Yenisey River and 1,500 km north of Krasnoyarsk. Norilsk is 300 ...

in Western

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

where it was discovered as reported in 1963 by I. Budko and E. Kulagov. It was officially named "talnakhite" in 1968."Time to gather stones"
Despite the initial announcement it turned out to be not a face centered high-temperature polymorph of chalcopyrite, but to have composition Cu₁₈(Fe, Ni)₁₈S₃₂. At to it decomposes to tetragonal

cubanite Cubanite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that commonly occurs as a minor alteration mineral in magmatic sulfide deposits. It has the chemical formula CuFe2S3 and when found, it has a bronze to brass-yellow appearance. On the Mohs scale of minera ...

plus

bornite Bornite, also known as peacock ore, is a sulfide mineral with chemical composition that crystallizes in the orthorhombic system (pseudo-cubic). It is an important copper ore. Appearance Bornite has a brown to copper-red color on fresh surfa ...

.Michael Fleischner, "New Mineral Names", ''

The American Mineralogist ''American Mineralogist: An International Journal of Earth and Planetary Materials'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the general fields of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, and petrology. It is an official journal of the Mi ...

,'' 1970, vol 55
p. 2135
/ref>

References

Copper(I,II) minerals Sulfide minerals Iron minerals Nickel minerals Cubic minerals Minerals in space group 217 {{sulfide-mineral-stub