Naldrettite is a mineral with a chemical formula of Pd₂Sb. It is named after

Anthony J. Naldrett Anthony James "Tony" Naldrett, FRSC (1933 – 21 June 2020) was an English and Canadian geologist. He was an authority on the geology and origin of nickel-copper-platinum group element deposits, the tectonic setting in which they occur, the petr ...

(born 1933), a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

, who has made significant contributions to the International Mineralogical Association (IMA). Naldrettite is a new

intermetallic An intermetallic (also called an intermetallic compound, intermetallic alloy, ordered intermetallic alloy, and a long-range-ordered alloy) is a type of metallic alloy that forms an ordered solid-state compound between two or more metallic eleme ...

mineral from the Mesamax Northwest deposit, Ungava region, Québec, Canada. Mineralization takes place around the base of basaltic dyke margins. Naldrettite is economically important because of its chemical composition (Pd₂Sb). The sample in which the new mineral was discovered had high

platinum group The platinum-group metals (abbreviated as the PGMs; alternatively, the platinoids, platinides, platidises, platinum group, platinum metals, platinum family or platinum-group elements (PGEs)) are six noble, precious metallic elements clustered t ...

elements (PGEs) with

palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

enrichment. Naldrettite occurs as anhedral grains that are commonly attached to

sulfide mineral The sulfide minerals are a class of minerals containing sulfide (S2−) or disulfide (S22−) as the major anion. Some sulfide minerals are economically important as metal ores. The sulfide class also includes the selenides, the tellurides, th ...

s and are associated with

clinochlore The chlorites are the group of phyllosilicate minerals common in low-grade metamorphic rocks and in Mineral alteration, altered igneous rocks. Greenschist, formed by metamorphism of basalt or other low-silica volcanic rock, typically contains si ...

. It belongs to the orthorhombic

crystal system In crystallography, a crystal system is a set of point groups (a group of geometric symmetries with at least one fixed point). A lattice system is a set of Bravais lattices. Space groups are classified into crystal systems according to their poin ...

and is a part of the pyramidal class. This means that all of the edge lengths (a,b,c) of the unit cell are different in length and intersect at right angles to each other. The mineral is metallic, opaque, appears bright creamy white under plane polarized light, has weak bireflectance, and does not exhibit internal reflections.Mindat.org
Accessed 28 October 2010

References

Antimony minerals Palladium minerals Orthorhombic minerals Minerals in space group 36 {{mineral-stub