Location:

Strathcona Mine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Strathcona Mine lies on the northern limb of the Sudbury Irruptive.

Major Minerals:

Monoclinic and hexagonal pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite, cubanite

Minor Minerals:

Magnetite, ilmenite, pyrite

Trace Minerals:

Include niccolite, gersdorffite, mackinawite, millerite, marcasite, hauchecornite, violarite, bornite, chalcocite, galena, sphalerite, native bismuth, native silver, electrum, altaite, empressite, sperrylite

Textures:

Magnetite is euhedral to subhedral and is replaced by pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. Hexagonal pyrrhotite is surrounded by monoclinic pyrrhotite. Pyrrhotite is surrounded by granular pentlandite along grain boundaries and has pentlandite flame-like exsolution bodies within it. Chalcopyrite and cubanite surround pyrrhotite and pentlandite. Chalcopyrite has cubanite exsolution lamellae and laths within it. Chalcopyrite is replaced by bornite, and pentlandite by violarite along its cleavage and grain boundaries. In copper-rich veins chalcopyrite forms coarse-grained twinned crystals with exsolved laths of cubanite. Pyrrhotite, with flame-like exsolution bodies of pentlandite along (0001) planes, is replaced by chalcopyrite, cubanite, Ni-rich mackinawite and sphalerite. Sphalerite carries abundant chalcopyrite inclusions.

References:

Naldrett and Kullerud, 1967; Vaughan et al., 1971; Abel et al., 1979