Murdochite is a mineral combining lead and copper oxides with the chemical formula PbCu6O8−x(Cl,Br)2x (x ≤ 0.5).

[4] Porter would later submit for analysis and it was then that Fred A. Hildebrand suggested that the sample was a new mineral after taking a powder x-ray picture.

This new formula was Cu6+xPb+x(O,Cl,Br)8 and was created with regard to the Cu/Pb variance observed in samples of murdochite from both Hansonburg, New Mexico, and T. Khuni mine, Iran.

[8] The structure of murdochite is described as edges of [PbO8] cubes spanned by Cu2+ ions that give a square-planar CuO4 arrangement in a three-dimensional network.

[11] Samples from T. Khuni mine indicate that polished sections of murdochite resemble the color and reflectivity of magnetite but vary because of zoning.

[4] The mine, about 46 miles northeast of Tucson, contains deposits of molybdenum, lead, gold, zinc, vanadium, sphalerite, and galena.

[10] Here murdochite was found in conjunction with khuniite (iranite), chrominium (phoenicochroite), plumangite and an unknown mineral with the formula Pb9O16.

[12] The mineral murdochite is named after Joseph Murdoch, who was once a professor of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles and a past president of the Mineralogical Society of America.