IMA nomenclature proposal

Thank You Alfredo!!
I think you have very succinctly made the distinction clear on both of the fronts you have mentioned. I still believe perhaps a redefinition is in order for metamict minerals that is practical and useful in properly categorizing these "species" that does not get too rediculous in its variable minor constituents.
Although the guidelines Stuart has referenced are good they are sometimes ignored in the whole re-naming game.
Steve.

Johan, you are quite right. Alfredo I think you hit the nail on the head. I think my views on the renaming of hancockite (described as the Pb analogue of epidote in the original 19th? century paper) is well known. Structual chemists, together with a certain other obsolete names reference author got some of this slipped past the IMA in Japan and we have been living the fallout since. I believe the only decent thing to do would be to reverse this decision.

And while we're on the subject: This trend I first noticed when Pengzhizhongite was renamed without a new description and without consulting the original author. In fact he was quite horrified when I first told him this when we met in Peking. The IMA rules themselves state that the original author should be consulted when they are still alive, which Yang Guangming is most definitely. As this was not done and there was no rediscription other than splitting it into two polysomes, Penzhizhongite with the appropriate polysome suffix should have precidence. Renaming this particular mineral was particularly egregious considering Peng Zhizhongs's enormous contribution to bothe mineralogy and crystallographyé This one too should be corrected. I raised this issue at Budapest and was assured this would be looked into. I hope it is.

Alfredo is right. The pyrochlore group was completely overhalled, which is different from hancockite. Apples and oranges.