Spontaneous fires occur on many coal dumps and are known to rage for many years or decades, forming many rare high-temperature minerals. More than 40 new compounds have been found in the Chelyabinsk Basin, but only 8 of them are today accepted as “real” mineral species.
Refs.:
Chesnokov, B.V., L.F. Bazhenova, E.P. Shcherbakova, T.A. Michal, T.N. Deriabina (1988), New minerals from the burned dumps of the Chelyabinsk coal basin, in Mineralogy, technogenesis, and mineral-resource complexes of the Urals. Akad. Nauk SSSR-Uralskoe Otdel.: 5-31 (in Russian).
http://maurice.strahlen.org/ural/srednji.htm
Cesnokov, Boris et al. Brennende Abraumhlden und Aufschlüsse im Tscheljabinsker Kohlenbecken eine reiche Mineralienkuche. Mineralien Welt: 3/98.
