What is "sperrylite"

Sperrylite \Sper"ry*lite\, n.[Named after F. L. Sperry, who discovered it.] (Min.) An arsenide of platinum occuring in grains and minute isometric crystals of tin-white color. It is found near Sudbury, Ontario Canada, and is the only known compound of platinum occuring in nature.

n. (context mineralogy English) An isometric-diploidal tin white mineral containing arsenic and platinum.

Sperrylite is a platinum arsenide mineral with formula PtAs and is an opaque metallic tin white mineral which crystallizes in the isometric system with the pyrite group structure. It forms cubic, octahedral or pyritohedral crystals in addition to massive and reniform habits. It has a Mohs hardness of 6 - 7 and a very high specific gravity of 10.6.

It was discovered by Francis Louis Sperry, an American chemist, in 1889 at Sudbury.

The most important occurrence of sperrylite is in the nickel ore deposit of Sudbury Basin in Ontario, Canada. It also occurs in the layered igneous complex of the Bushveld region of South Africa and the Oktyabr'skoye copper-nickel deposit of the Eastern-Siberian Region, Russia.