Auricupride Locality: Zolotaya Gora (Zlataya Gora; Zlatoya Gora) Au deposit, Soimon Valley, Karabash (Karabasch) , Chelyabinsk Oblast' , Southern Urals, Urals Region, Russia ( Locality at mindat.org ) Size: 1.7 x 1.3 x 0.7 cm. Auricupride is an ULTRA-RARE copper and gold alloy. This thumbnail features several clusters of rich, coppery-gold auricupride microcrystals on matrix from the Type Locality - Zolotaya Gora in the Urals. Rarely available. Ex. Fersman Museum of Moscow specimen. — Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky · CC BY-SA 3.0
Auricupride
A natural alloy of copper and gold (Cu₃Au) occurring as malleable grains or platy masses.
Intro adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Auricupride is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the native element class, with the chemical formula Cu₃Au.
It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system (space group Pm3m). It is a member of the Perovskite, Auricupride structural group.
Key properties: Mohs hardness 3.5; specific gravity 11.5; Highly metallic. R: n.d luster.
IMA symbol Auc, grandfathered status — known before the IMA’s founding, named in 1950.
Found in serpentinites as the product of low-temperature ordering and unmixing of Au–Cu solid solution alloys (Karabash deposit, Russia); in reduction halos in Permian red beds (near Zurich, Switzerland).
It is found associated with Gold, copper, other Au–Cu alloys.
The name refers to its composition.