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Can you help make this a better article? What good localities have we missed? Can you supply pictures of better specimens than those we show here? Can you give us more and better information about the specimens from these localities? Can you supply better geological or historical information on these localities?

Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Alumotungstite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Alumotungstite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Alumotungstite that will go into the article.



Alumotungstite
(W,Al)(,O,OH)₃ Crystal system uncertain. Possibly cubic or pseudocubic.


Listed in Fleischer's Glossary as a questionable species.
“…alumotungstite crystals are octahedral, usually less than 100 microns in size. …The crystals are largely arranged in rounded groups and the single octahedra typically exhibit penetration twins according to the spinel law…The crystals commonly show a thin skin…or contain an outer margin easily detached from the core. …Such crystals appear zoned with rather loose zone boundaries. The crystals are invariably weakly birefringent. …The Central African alumotungstite is distinguishable from ferritungstite only through its chemistry and/or through its unit cell parameter. Both minerals occur together and they may be found even in the same speicmen.”1 “Cubic; may be rhombohedral, pseudocubic. …As octahedra, to 250 μm , may be flattened with a hexagonal outline, and as rounded groups of octahedra…”2 This description refers to the crystals from Central Africa. The mineral was first discovered in yttrotungstite specimens from Malaysia, Perak, Kinta District, Kramat Pulai Mine. The mineral was also found at Rwanda, Gifurwe mine and in Uganda, Kigezi district at the Nyamulilo Mine and at the Kirwa mine. Good images of alumotungstite crystals are printed in the Mineralogical Record article.1 This is one of the thousands of only a mother could love minerals. Make sure any specimens you buy have been correctly identified. That means you should grill the dealer on why he is sure that the specimen you are buying contains alumotungstite.
1Mineralogical Record, Vol. 12, 1981, p84-5. - 2 Handbook of Mineralogy, Volume lII, Anthony, Bideaux, Bladh, Nichols, p 11.



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Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2012 08:45PM by Rock Currier.