sulfide mineral

or sulphide mineral

Any member of a group of compounds of sulfur with one or more metals. The metals that occur most commonly are iron, copper, nickel, lead, cobalt, silver, and zinc. They are the ore minerals of most metals used by industry (e.g., antimony, bismuth, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc). Other industrially important metals such as cadmium and selenium occur in trace amounts in numerous common sulfides and are recovered in refining processes.

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A sulfide mineral is a mineral containing sulfide (S^2-) as the major anion. Sulfides are economically important as metal ores. The sulfide class also includes the selenides, the tellurides, the arsenides, the antimonides, the bismuthinides, and the sulfosalts (sulfur and a second anion such as arsenic).

Common or important examples include: sulfides:

• acanthite Ag₂S
• chalcocite Cu₂S
• bornite Cu₅FeS₄
• galena PbS
• sphalerite ZnS
• chalcopyrite CuFeS₂
• pyrrhotite Fe_1-xS
• millerite NiS
• pentlandite (Fe,Ni)₉S₈
• covellite CuS
• cinnabar HgS
• realgar AsS
• orpiment As₂S₃
• stibnite Sb₂S₃
• pyrite FeS₂
• marcasite FeS₂
• molybdenite MoS₂

Arsenides:

• nickeline NiAs
• skutterudite (Co,Ni)As₃

Antimonides:

• breithauptite NiSb

Tellurides:

• altaite PbTe
• calaverite AuTe₂
• sylvanite (Au,Ag)Te₂

Sulfosalts:

• cobaltite (Co,Fe)AsS
• arsenopyrite FeAsS
• pyrargyrite Ag₃SbS₃
• proustite Ag₃AsS₃
• tetrahedrite Cu₁₂Sb₄S₁₃
• tennantite Cu₁₂As₄S₁₃
• enargite Cu₃AsS₄
• bournonite PbCuSbS₃
• jamesonite Pb₄FeSb₆S₁₄

References

• Webmineral New Dana Classification of Sulfide Minerals
• Webmineral Strunz classification: sulfides