Bezsmertnovite, less often bessmertnovite (Russian: Безсмертновит) is a very rare supergene mineral of the sulfide class, complex in composition: mixed plumbotelluride of gold, copper, iron, silver from the bilibinskite group with the calculation formula Au4Cu(Te,Pb).
During research at the deposit, several previously unknown minerals of complex composition were discovered and registered, one of which was a new and unusual in structure plumbotelluride with a very high content of gold, first found in 1978 and the following year received the name bezsmertnovite.
[6] The internationally accepted name of the mineral reproduces the old (Church Slavonic) transcription of the word “bessmertie” (Russian: бессмертие, immortality), which ceased to be a grammatical norm in the 19th century, however, preserved in various linguistic formations of early times.
[5] Moreover, it was Marianna Bezsmertnaya who insisted on including her husband’s name in the nomination list of the mineral bezsmertnovite, considering herself part of the family scientific tandem.
This was her only request (an important condition) to Tatiana Chvileva and Ernst Spiridonov when nominating the mineral for approval by the commission of the Academy of Sciences and the USSR Ministry of Geology in 1979.
[7]: 294 At first, visually classified as a natural intermetallic compound of gold, the mineral almost immediately aroused scientific discussions, accompanied by a series of spectral and radiographic studies.
[10]: 113 In reflected light, bezsmertnovite is similar to gold, due to which it is easily detected among aggregates of bilibinskite, bogdanovite and other minerals of the group: it is the lightest of them, has a rich orange-yellow color, and in crossed nicols it is weakly anisotropic in gray tones.
The most famous of them: Manka (Kurshim District, East Kazakhstan Region), two deposits in Shandong province (northeast China); Plavica-Zlatica (North Macedonia) and Trixie (Utah).