Latitude: 46°11'55"N
Longitude: 2°57'50"E
Mine des Montmins (Filon Ste Barbe), Échassières, Ébreuil, Allier, Auvergne, France
Early 20th century tungsten mine, working wolframite-bearing quartz veins hosted by micaceous slates and granite. Located about 3 km NE of Echassières.
Famous for a wealth of well-crystallised secondary oxysalt minerals (mainly phosphates and arsenates).
NOTE on the mineral list:
An "Unnamed (Pb-U-Al Phosphate)" described by Cuchet et al. (2000) later turned out to be simply parsonsite, see
http://www.mindat.org/min-29119.html.
NOTE on the published mineral photos:
- The photo of "mawbyite" published in Boisson et al. (2000) most probably shows a carminite. Single-crystal XRD studies of crystals with identical shape showed them to be carminite (Uwe Kolitsch, unpublished results).
- The dufrénites shown in the locality photo gallery here on Mindat may in part be natrodufrénite (probably none of them has been analysed (semi-)quantitatively).
Mineral List
131 entries listed. 119 valid minerals.
The above list contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please
register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to
visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders
for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.
References
- Aubert, G. (1969): Les coupoles granitiques de Montebras et d'Echassières (Massif Central Français) et la genèse de leurs minéralisations en étain, lithium, tungstène et béryllium. Mémoires du BRGM N°46, 345 pp.
- Walenta, K. & Binder, W. (1980): Kidwellit und Dufrenit aus den Mines de Montmins bei Echassiéres (französisches Zentralmassiv). Aufschluss 31, 51-54.
- Boisson, J.-M., Leydet, J.-C., Queneau, P., Revel, C. & Valverde, J. (2000): Filon Sainte-Barbe, Commune d'Echassières (Allier, France). Le Cahier des Micromonteurs, No. 4, 3-46. (in French)
- Cuchet, S., Brugger, J., Meisser, N., Ansermet, S. & Chiappero, P.-J. (2000): Les minéraux du filon Sainte-Barbe, Les Montmins, Allier. Le Règne Minéral, (33), 5-25. (in French) [http://www.strahlen.org/magspublic/lrm/lrm-2000-0506-05-frankrijk-allier-montmins.pdf [Link dead. Dec 2011]]
- Mestrom, P. (2009): De mineralen van Les Montmins: klein maar fijn. GEA, 42 (1), 10-14.
- Kolitsch, U., Gröbner, J. & Brandstätter, F. (2009): Neufunde von Les Montmins, Allier, Frankreich. Lapis 34 (11), 24-32; 54 (in German).
- Mestrom, P., Lustenhouwer, W. & Kars, S. (2011): Les Montmins (Massif Central, F) nader bekeken. GEA, 44 (1), 16-21.
External Links
- http://www.strahlen.org/vp/fr/montmins/montmins.htm [Link dead. Dec 2011]
Mineral and Locality Search
