Stephanite-fifth in a series

摘要

An interesting question has been raised regarding the rarity of Stephanite vs. polybasite (see previous article) and no clear answer is forthcoming. One should consider the quantity of massive material as well as crystalline pieces and this is not well documented in our reference set. Both species are occasionally reported to be abundant enough to form ore bodies yet fine crystals are said to be more or less infrequent in occurrence. Apparently, at least at Sarbay in Kazakhstan (Pekov et al., 1997) stephanite is clearly less common. The opposite situation seems to have been noted at the Husky mine in Canada. Regarding the current status of this question, we have not reached a final conclusion.