What is "cobaltite"

Cobaltine \Co"balt*ine\, Cobaltite \Co"balt*ite\n. (Min.) A mineral of a nearly silver-white color, composed of arsenic, sulphur, and cobalt.

n. (context mineral English) A rare, gray mineral, a mixed sulfide and arsenide of cobalt and iron with the chemical formula cobaltarsenicsulfur; it is an ore of cobalt.

n. a rare silvery-white mineral; important ore of cobalt

Cobaltite is a sulfide mineral composed of cobalt, arsenic and sulfur, Co As S. It contains up to 10 percent iron and variable amounts of nickel. Structurally it resembles pyrite (FeS) with one of the sulfur atoms replaced by an arsenic atom.

Although rare, it is mined as a significant source of the strategically important metal cobalt. Secondary weathering incrustations of erythrite, hydrated cobalt arsenate, are common.

The name is from the German, Kobold, "underground spirit" in allusion to the "refusal" of cobaltiferous ores to smelt as they are expected to.

It occurs in high temperature hydrothermal deposits and contact metamorphic rocks. It occurs in association with magnetite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, skutterudite, allanite, zoisite, scapolite, titanite, calcite along with numerous other Co–Ni sulfides and arsenides. It was described as early as 1832.

It is found chiefly in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Cornwall, England, Canada, Australia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Morocco.