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LITHOEN

Mineral

Chalcopyrite

A copper–iron sulfide, and the standing illustration of chalcophile behaviour: copper in a sulfide, not a silicate.

Cut slab in which bronze and purple-iridescent sulfide forms an interlocking mass through darker silicate host rock.
Massive sulfide from a layered mafic intrusion. Sulfide of this kind did not precipitate from water: it separated as an immiscible liquid inside a silicate magma once that magma became sulfide-saturated, and then settled. The same metals, concentrated by a mechanism that involves no fluid at all. Locality: Stillwater Mine, Beartooth Mountains, Montana, United States, as stated by the source.

James St. John, CC BY 2.0 · CC-BY-2.0 · source · Derivative: Downscaled to 1200 px wide by the Wikimedia thumbnail service; no cropping, no colour or content alteration.

Classification

formula
CuFeS2
ima status
grandfathered
crystal system
tetragonal

How this record is known

1
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.

1 of 1 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

EstablishedCuFeS2

Chalcopyrite is an accepted mineral species in the IMA List of Minerals, with the CNMNC-approved formula CuFeS2 and IMA status “grandfathered”.

  • definition basis: IMA List of Minerals, September 2026 update, which is the authority on mineral species status.
  • precision note: An approved formula is an idealised composition; natural crystals of most species depart from it through substitution.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification, International Mineralogical Association 2026 Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-06. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.