Geographic Minerals

Kalininite: Properties and Occurrences

Kalininite: Properties and Occurrences

Kalininite (ZnCr2S4) is a thiospinel mineral found in Russia in 1985 in the Pereval Marble Quarry, Slyudyanka (Sludyanka), Lake Baikal area, Irkutskaya Oblast’, Prebaikalia (Pribaikal’e), Eastern-Siberian Region. It is an isometric-hexoctahedral black mineral containing chromium, sulfur, and zinc. It was named for P. V. Kalinin, Russian mineralogist, and petrologist, investigator of the southern Baikal region.

General Information

  • Formula: ZnCr2S4
  • Hardness: 5
  • Member of: Linnaeite Group.
  • Common Impurities: Cu, V, Sb

Fig: Kalininite

Properties

  • Color: Black.
  • Diaphaneity: Opaque
  • Hardness: 5 – Apatite
  • Luster: Adamantine

Occurrence: In a garnet-pyroxene mixture in diopside-quartz-calcite rocks.

Association: Karelianite, eskolaite, diopside, quartz, calcite, barite, zircon, chromian-vanadian tremolite, goldmanite–uvarovite, pyrite.

 

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