Discussions

💬 Home 🔎 Search 📅 Latest

╳Discussions

💬 Home 🔎 Search 📅 Latest

Groups

Recent Images in Discussions

GeneralMineral of the year 2014: Ophirite

27th Jan 2016 09:29 UTCMarco E. Ciriotti Manager

MINERAL OF THE YEAR 2014

(from Elements)

More than 100 novel mineral species are discovered every year. Many

of them represent chemical variations of previously known structure

types, and some are natural analogues of artifi cial chemical compounds.

However, there are many new minerals that possess unique chemical

compositions, interesting and complex structures, beautiful crystals,

or that form under unusual conditions. To celebrate such species, the

IMA council has developed an annual award—Mineral of the Year—in

order to recognize the most interesting mineral published during the

previous year. The members of the IMA Commission on New Minerals,

Nomenclature and Classifi cation will select a winner each year.

It is a pleasure to announce that the fi rst Mineral of the Year award,

for 2014, goes to … ophirite!

Ophirite, Ca2Mg4[Zn2Mn23+(H2O)2(Fe3+W9O34)2]·46H2O, is a new mineral

species from the Ophir

Hill Consolidated mine,

Ophir district, Oquirrh

Mounta ins, Tooele

County in Utah (USA). It

was described by Anthony

R. Kampf of the Natural

History Museum of Los

Angeles County (California, USA) with coauthors John M. Hughes

(University of Vermont, USA), Barbara P. Nash (University of Utah),

Stephen E. Wright (Miami University, USA), George R. Rossman

(California Institute of Technology), and Joe Marty (Utah). The full

description of ophirite can be found in Kampf et al. (2014). Ophirite

forms beautiful orange-brown tablet-shaped crystals up to 1 mm in

length and is the fi rst known mineral to contain a lacunary defect

derivative of the Keggin anion, i.e. a heteropolyanion missing some of

its octahedral segments (Keggin 1934). Phases with the Keggin anion

are important in solid-state chemistry as catalysts (e.g. Sun et al. 2009).

We would like to mention that there were other very interesting phases

that were close runners-up. These included bluebellite, Cu6[I5+O3(OH)3]

(OH)7Cl (Mills et al. 2014); qingsongite, BN (Dobrzhinetskaya et al.

2014); and peterandresenite, Mn4Nb6O19·14H2O (Friis et al. 2014).

Once again, we would like to congratulate the discoverers of ophirite

and encourage all readers of Elements to fi nd out more about this

fantastic fi nd in the Kampf et al. American Mineralogist article.

Sergey Krivovichev, IMA President

REFERENCES

Dobrzhinetskaya LF and 6 coauthors (2014) Qingsongite, natural cubic

boron nitride: The fi rst boron mineral from the Earth’s mantle. American

Mineralogist 99: 764-772

Friis H and 6 coathors (2014) Peterandresenite, Mn4Nb6O19·14H2O, a new

mineral containing the Lindqvist ion from a syenite pegmatite of the Larvik

Plutonic Complex, southern Norway. European Journal of Mineralogy 26:

567-576

Kampf AR and 5 coathors (2014) Ophirite, Ca2Mg4[Zn2Mn23+(H2O)2(Fe3+W9O

34)2]·46H2O, a new mineral with a heteropolytungstate tri-lacunary Keggin

anion. American Mineralogist 99: 1045-1051

Keggin JF (1934) The structure and formula of 12-phosphotungstic acid.

Proceedings of the Royal Society A 144: 75-100

Mills SJ and 6 coathors (2014) Bluebellite and mojaveite, two new minerals

from the central Mojave Desert, California, USA. Mineralogical Magazine 78:

1325-1340

Sun CY and 5 coathors (2009) Highly stable crystalline catalysts based on a

microporous metal−organic framework and polyoxometalates. Journal of the

American Chemical Society 131: 1883-1888

Mindat.org is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 25, 2024 07:08:48

Go to top of page