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MineralsChalcophyllite

31st May 2014 19:28 UTCHolger Klapproth

As a collector of Cornish type locality specimens I wonder if someone here has a better idea about the type locality of Chalcophyllite. One of my most favorite minerals. A. G. Tinsel names "Wheal Tamar" with a ?. Given that there are no specimens from the Tamar valley known and other copper arsenates also seem rather scarce it seems likely to me that this is not the type locality. Unfortunately M.H. Klaproth does not mention Chalcophyllite in his "Observations" and the old french literate is not accessible to me. But given the fact that you needed a few grams of material for chemical analysis (we talk of around 1800) it is very likely that proper (i.e. analysed) material came from the St. Day area.


It would be great if someone could come up with an idea if I am right or wrong.



Looking forward for some replies


Holger

1st Jun 2014 11:02 UTCBen Grguric Expert

Hi Holger,

In the Mindat locality list, the reference given for Wheal Tamar is Golley and Williams (1995) Cornish Mineral Reference Manual. However, checking my copy of this reference there is no listing of Wheal Tamar under chalcophyllite. Nickel and Nichols (1991) give the earliest descriptive reference as Breithaupt (1841), or at least the first one in which the name chalkophyllit is used. 1841 would suggest Vol 2 of Breithaupt's Vollstaendiges Handbuch der Mineralogie. Dana's System of Mineralogy suggests Breithaupt's Volume 3 (1847) and page 149, if you can find a library with this old text. It's also possible the type locality was in Germany (Schmiedeberg or Mordelgrund) since these are the first localities given in several texts.

Cheers,

Ben.

1st Jun 2014 11:11 UTCBen Grguric Expert

Hi again,

Also forgot to mention in Greg and Lettsom (1958) the mineral is listed as tamarite, however, they suggest the source of that name is sketchy. I'll quote them directly: "The name Tamarite is the one proposed by Brooke and Miller for this mineral, but what connexion there may be between the Tamar, or any of the Tamar mines, and the species in question, is by no means obvious."
 
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