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The mineralogy of Rhenium

General Properties
Symbol:	Re
Atomic Number:	75
Standard atomic weight (A_r):	186.207(1)
Electron configuration:	[Xe] 4f¹⁴ 5d⁵ 6s²

Photos

<	A high purity (99.999 %) rhenium	>

Atomic Properties
Electronegativity (Pauling scale):	1.9
Atomic Radius:	188 pm
Ionic Radius:	63 pm (+4)
1st Ionization energy:	760 kJ/mol
1st Electron affinity:	-15 kJ/mol
Oxidation States:	-3,-1,1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Physical Properties
Standard State:	solid
Bonding Type:	metallic
Melting Point:	3459 K
Boiling Point:	5869 K
Density:	21.02 g/cm³
Metal/Non-Metal:	transition metal

Main isotopes of Rhenium
Isotope	% in Nature	Half Life	Decay type	Decay product
¹⁸⁵Re	37.4%	-	α ?	¹⁸¹Ta
¹⁸⁷Re	62.6%	4.1×10¹⁰y	α	¹⁸³Ta
¹⁸⁷Re	62.6%	4.1×10¹⁰y	β−	¹⁸⁷Os

Main ions of Rhenium
Name	Ion	Example minerals
rhenium(VII)	Re⁷⁺
rhenium(VI)	Re⁶⁺
rhenium(V)	Re⁵⁺
rhenium(IV)	Re⁴⁺
rhenium(II)	Re²⁺	Rheniite

Other Information
Year Discovered:	1908
Discovered By:	Masataka Ogawa
Named For:	From Latin Rhenus, the river Rhine
CPK color coding:	#267DAB
External Links:	Wikipedia WebElements Los Alamos National Laboratory Theodore Gray's PeriodicTable.com

Simple Compounds and Mineral Names
Sulfides	rhenium disulphide	ReS₂	+2	Rheniite
Sulfides	dirhenium heptasulphide	Re₂S₇	+7
Tellurides	rhenium ditelluride	ReTe₂	+4
Fluorides	rhenium hexafluoride	ReF₆	+6
	rhenium tetrafluoride	ReF₄	+4
	rhenium pentafluoride	ReF₅	+5
	rhenium heptafluoride	ReF₇	+7
Chlorides	rhenium hexachloride	ReCl₆	+6
	rhenium tetrachloride	ReCl₄	+4
	rhenium pentachloride	ReCl₅	+5
	trirhenium nonachloride	[ReCl₃]₃	+3
Bromides	rhenium tetrabromide	ReBr₄	+4
	rhenium pentabromide	ReBr₅	+5
	trirhenium nonabromide	[ReBr₃]₃	+3
Iodides	rhenium tetraiodide	ReI₄	+4
Iodides	trirhenium nonaiodide	[ReI₃]₃	+3
Oxides	rhenium dioxide	ReO₂	+4
	rhenium trioxide	ReO₃	+6
	dirhenium trioxide	Re₂O₃	+3
	dirhenium heptoxide	Re₂O₇	+7

Mineral Diversity of Rhenium
2. Sulfides And Sulfosalts	2 valid mineral species
Total:	2 valid species containing essential Rhenium

Minerals with the greatest weight % of Rhenium
Rheniite	ReS₂	74.38 %
Tarkianite	(Cu,Fe)(Re,Mo)₄S₈	69.94 %

Geochemistry of Rhenium
Goldschmidt classification:	Siderophile
Re⁴⁺ is enriched in Ca-Al-rich inclusions in meteorites relative to the composition of the solar system.

Elemental Abundance for Rhenium
Crust (CRC Handbook)	7 x 10^-10	mass fraction, kg/kg
Crust (Kaye & Laby)	4 x 10^-10	mass fraction, kg/kg
Crust (Greenwood)	7 x 10^-10	mass fraction, kg/kg
Crust (Ahrens/Taylor)	5 x 10^-10	mass fraction, kg/kg
Crust (Ahrens/Wänke)	1.02 x 10^-9	mass fraction, kg/kg
Upper Crust (Ahrens/Taylor)	5 x 10^-10	mass fraction, kg/kg
Sea Water (CRC Handbook)	4 x 10^-12	mass per volume fraction, kg/L
Solar System (Kaye & Laby)	5.0 x 10^-8	atom mole fraction relative to Si=1
Solar System (Ahrens)	5.17 x 10^-8 (9.4%)	atom mole fraction relative to Si=1 (% uncertainty)

Deposit Models
There is minor substitution of rhenium in molybdenum minerals (molybdenite) from copper porphyry deposits. It is commercially produced from molybdenum concentrates and also from sedimentary copper deposits.

Element association of Rhenium in the Mineral World
This table compares the known valid mineral species listed listed with Rhenium and the other elements listed based on the official IMA formula. Note that unlike other sections on this page this includes non-essential elements. The first data column contains the total number of minerals listed with Rhenium and the element listed for that row. The second data column lists this number as a percentage of all minerals listed with Rhenium. The final data column compares this percentage against the percentage of all minerals that contain the element listed in each row. Click on a heading to sort.

Element	Valid Minerals listed with element and Rhenium	% of Re minerals	Relative to % in all minerals
Sulfur	2 minerals with Re and S	100.00%	353.48% higher
Iron	1 mineral with Re and Fe	50.00%	122.82% higher
Copper	1 mineral with Re and Cu	50.00%	268.45% higher
Molybdenum	1 mineral with Re and Mo	50.00%	3,090.72% higher

Periodic Table

2He

3Li

4Be

Show/hide current element

Default Categories CPK Electronegativity Atomic Radius Lowest Oxidation Highest Oxidation Crustal Abundance Goldschmidt Mineral Species Minerals with Re Relative Frequency

Tungsten << Rhenium >> Osmium

Most widespread minerals containing Rhenium
This list of minerals containing Rhenium is built from the mindat.org locality database. This is based on the number of localities entered for mineral species and is therefore slanted towards minerals interesting to collectors with less coverage of common rock-forming-minerals so it does not give an undistorted distribution of Rhenium mineral species. It is more useful when comparing rare species rather than common species.

Most widespread minerals containing Rhenium

This list of minerals containing Rhenium is built from the mindat.org locality database. This is based on the number of localities entered for mineral species and is therefore slanted towards minerals interesting to collectors with less coverage of common rock-forming-minerals so it does not give an undistorted distribution of Rhenium mineral species. It is more useful when comparing rare species rather than common species.

Name	Formula	Crystal System	Mindat Localities
Tarkianite	(Cu,Fe)(Re,Mo)₄S₈	Isometric	11
Rheniite	ReS₂	Triclinic	10

Photos
Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Rheniite Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Photos

Rheniite

Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Rheniite

Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Rheniite

Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Rheniite

Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Rheniite

Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Rheniite

Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Rheniite

Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Rheniite

Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Kurilsky District, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia

Localities with greatest number of different Rhenium mineral species

1	Gaiswand mine, Haidbachgraben, Mittersill, Zell am See District, Salzburg, Austria	2 Re minerals
2	Garson Mine, Garson Township, Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada	1 Re minerals
3	Konos Hill deposit, Kassiteres-Sapes area, Maroneia-Sapes, Rhodope, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Greece	1 Re minerals
4	Shōwa-shinzan volcano, Usu District, Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan	1 Re minerals
5	Mount Usu (Usu volcano), Usu District, Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan	1 Re minerals
6	Zhelos intrusion, Irkutsk Oblast, Russia	1 Re minerals
7	2012-2013 Fissure Tolbachik Eruption site, Plosky Tolbachik Volcano, Tolbachik Volcanic field, Milkovsky District, Kamchatka Krai, Russia	1 Re minerals
8	Totten No. 2 Mine, Worthington Offset Dike, Worthington area, Drury Township, Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada	1 Re minerals

Spotted a mistake/omission? - These pages are a work in progress, so please send all comments/corrections to jolyon@mindat.org. Thank you.

Constants and physical property data from:

Lide, David R. - Ed. (2005) CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics - A Ready-Reference Book of Chemical and Physical Data (85th ed.). CRC Press.
National Physical Laboratory (2005) Kaye and Laby Online (discontinued). https://web.archive.org/web/20190506031327/http://www.kayelaby.npl.co.uk/
Kaye, G. W. C.; Laby, T. H. (n.d.) Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants and some Mathematical Functions. Longmans, Green, and Co.
Greenwood, N.N.; Earnshaw, A. (1997) Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth–Heinemann.
Ahrens, Thomas J. - Ed. (1995) Global Earth Physics - A Handbook of Physical Constants - AGU Reference Shelf No. 1. American Geophysical Union.
Railsback, L. Bruce (2003) An earth scientist's periodic table of the elements and their ions. Geology, 31 (9) 737 doi:10.1130/g19542.1
Emsley, John (2001) Nature's Building Blocks - An A-Z Guide to the Elements. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

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