Tellurite is a rare oxide mineral

Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

 composed of tellurium dioxide

Tellurium dioxide

Tellurium dioxide is a solid oxide of tellurium. It is encountered in two different forms, the yellow orthorhombic mineral tellurite, β-TeO2, and the synthetic, colourless tetragonal , α-TeO2...

 (TeO

Oxygen

Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

₂).

It occurs as prismatic to acicular transparent yellow to white orthorhombic crystals. It occurs in the oxidation

Redox

Redox reactions describe all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation state changed....

 zone of mineral deposits in association with native tellurium, emmonsite

Emmonsite

Emmonsite, also known as durdenite, is a mineral with the formula:Fe23·2.Emmonsite forms triclinic crystals. It is of a yellowish-green color, with a vitreous lustre, and a hardness of 5 on the Moh scale. It was named for the American geologist, Samuel Franklin Emmons, , of the United States...

 and other tellurium minerals. Its name comes from Tellus, which is the Latin name for the planet Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

.