abstract:The mineral petzite, Ag3AuTe2, is a soft, steel-gray telluride mineral generally deposited by hydrothermal activity. It forms isometric crystals, and is usually associated with rare tellurium and gold minerals, often with silver, mercury, and copper.
The existenceof petzite and hessiteaslow-temperature isomorphic modifications indicates that thiskind of deposits has been formed in the lowtemperatureand low pressureenvironment.