THE MINERAL RHENIITE

Chemistry: ReS2, Rhenium Sulfide
Class: Sulfides and Sulfosalts
Uses: Only as mineral specimens.
Specimens

Rheniite is a very rare and a very new mineral on the mineral market. It is so new that it is not yet listed in mineral indexes. It is found at the Kudriary Volcano, Iturup Island, Russia and is the only known rhenium mineral.

Rhenium has been found as a trace element in columbite, molybdenite, gadolinite and some platinum ores. Molybdenite, MoS2, is the only real ore of rhenium, a useful and expensive metal. The rhenium is only a trace element in the molybdenite but is found in enough concentration, up to 0.2%, and enough molybdenite is processed for molybdenium that over 100 tons of rhenium are known to exist in the world.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

Color is a bright metallic silver white.
Luster is metallic.
Transparency crystals are opaque.
Crystal Habits include tiny thin, platy crystals and disseminated grains and masses.
Specific Gravity is 7.5 measured (above average for metallic minerals)
Streak is black.
Notable Occurrence: Kudriary Volcano, Iturup Island, Russia.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, locality and color.