Kamotoite-(Y)

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?


Kamotoite-(Y)
Y₂(UO₂)₄[O₄|(CO₃)3] · 14H2O Monoclinic


Kamotoite-(Y)
Congo, Democratic Republic of
Katanga (Shaba), Katanga Copper Crescent, Western area, Kolwezi, Kamoto, Kamoto East Open cut

Kamotoite-(Y) & others 5.8cm wide	© Rob Lavinsky

The pictured specimen is the best specimen known and comes from the personal collection of J.M. Pendeville, who discovered the pocket and is now in my collection. The second best specimen is in the Sorbonne, Paris, collection. The third best is also in my personal collection. The specie is not rare at the deposit but good crystallized specimens are very rare and only less than 5 are top grade. Most specimens are crystalline masses or coatings. The mineral sit on unaltered massive Uraninite and is VERY radioactive. The Uraninite from Shinkolobwe is around 656 milion years old ( Dr. Michel Deliens ) The Uraninite from Kamoto must be younger because for the same quantity, the radiation is much higher.

Kamotoite was discovered in the early 1980’s by the late Jean-Marie Pendeville in the Kamoto East open cut, situated near the city of Kolwezi, Western area of the Katanga Copper Belt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The formal description was done in 1986 by M. Deliens et P. Piret. Kamotoite is a hydrated Carbonate of Uranyl and Rare Earths. The REE are in declining order of importance, Y, Nd, Gd, Sm and Dy. It is the most important mineral that was found in a Uranium-bearing pocket associated with Shabaite-(Nd), Astrocyanite-(Ce), Schuilingite-(Nd) and Uranophane. A little Curite is also present. The mineral has a very attractive lemon to golden yellow colour and forms rarely radiated structures.
The crystals are monoclinic and are terminated in a point forming an angle of 35 °. As of 2009 only 5 occurrences are known and Kamoto East is the most important.
[Paul De Bondt 2009]

Perhaps we should include a description of Kamotoite-(Y) from other localities here, but we need someone to tell us about them and to upload pictures of them. I have a feeling that compared to the specimen pictured above, they would all be at least two orders of magnitude less quality, probably barely yellow stains on rock. Does anyone have information to the contrary? Actually I am pretty sure that some decent micro crystals have been found at some of these other localities, but am trying to goad some of the people who specialize in minerals from those areas to step up and help us make this a better article.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2009 11:41PM by Rock Currier.

Paul, I sort of formalized the information you gave and put it into the format of the articles that are being created. I would encourage you to continue on and create other articles about other minerals in exactly the same way I have done above. You can do exactly the same think in any of these fields, like the one this message is written in. All the tools you need are in the tool bar directly above any reply you make to me. It is not hard to do and it took me only about five minutes to do the job. The hard part, or perhaps I should say the most satisfying part is to learn about the minerals and to write it all down and make sure it is correct. Then when you format it in a field like this one and put in the picture(s). you get to see the whole thing come to life. If you have any questions about how to do what I did above, get back to me. Keep up the good work.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Thank you Rock.

Paul.