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Aris Quarries (Ariskop Quarry; Railway Quarry), Aris, Windhoek District, Khomas Region, Namibia

Latitude: 22°46'7"S
Longitude: 17°7'52"E
Two phonolite quarries, the Railway Quarry and the Ariskop Quarry, are located 25 km S of Windhoek, on the road to Rehoboth. The two open pits are less than 1 km apart. The Railway Quarry (West side of the road) has been inactive [in 2011] for the last 10-15 year, whereas the Ariskop Quarry (East side of the road) has been active in at least the last decade and was active in 2011. Most of the minerals, including the type minerals, collected in recent years came from the workings of the Ariskop Quarry.

Mineralogy is somewhat similar to that of the Saint-Amable sill (Demix-Varennes quarry), Québec, Canada, the Point of Rocks phonolite in New Mexico, USA and, in part, to that of Mont Saint-Hilaire. The most notable difference between these localities is the extreme scarcity of eudialyte-group minerals at Aris.


IMPORTANT NOTES on the mineral list (updated/cleaned up in May, June and July 2006, September & December 2007, August 2008, August 2009, May 2011, October 2011 by Uwe Kolitsch):

1) Several other species were reportly found and/or sold by dealers, but have never been confirmed. They are, in alphabetical order:
- canasite
- gyrolite (confused with globular fluorite? there is also an apparently new mineral with an appearance similar to that of gyrolite)
- hiorthdalite II (confused with nenadkevichite or other labuntsovite-group mineral?)
- hisingerite
- iraqite-(La) (confused with sazhinite, probably because the powder diffraction patterns are similar)
- isokite (a sample labeled as "isokite" contained no isokite at all)
- sepiolite-Fe
- tetranatrolite (a sample labeled as "tetranatrolite" turned out to be makatite)
- zakharovite (in fact, the mineral is the unnamed Fe-analogue of zakharovite)

2) Eudialyte, originally mentioned in von Knorring & Franke (1987) has been confirmed - as an eudialyte-group mineral - for the first time only in 2008 (a single specimen) and then again in 2009 (another single specimen). Most "eudialytes" in collections are probably villiaumite.


A larger number of presently unidentified minerals, some of them certainly new to science, are under study in various laboratories, partly in collaborative efforts (Vienna, Tempe, Copenhagen, Oslo, Ottawa).

Mineral List

Aegirine
Aenigmatite ?
Albite
Analcime
'Apatite'
'Apophyllite'
Apophyllite-(KF)
Apophyllite-(KOH) ?
Apophyllite-(NaF) ?
Aragonite ?
'Arisite'
Arisite-(Ce) (TL)
Arisite-(La) (TL)
Baryte
Bastnäsite-(Ce)
'Biotite'
'Calcioancylite'
Calcioancylite-(Ce)
Calcite
Canasite ?
Cancrinite ?
Cerite-(Ce)
Cordylite-(Ce)
Cryolite
Diopside
Ellingsenite (TL)
Epidote ?
Eudialyte Group
Ferro-pargasite
Ferro-tschermakite ?
Fluorapatite
Fluorite
Galena
Gypsum
Haüyne
Hematite ?
Heulandite-Na
Hilairite
Hydroxylapatite ?
'Hydroxylbastnäsite-(La)'
Kaersutite
Kalsilite
Kanemite
Katophorite ?
Kenyaite
Korobitsynite
'Labuntsovite Group'
Labuntsovite-Mn
Leucite
Löllingite
Lovozerite
Lovozerite Group
Magadiite
Magnetite
Makatite
Manganoneptunite
Microcline
Monazite-(Ce)
Monazite-(La)
Montmorillonite ?
Muscovite
Narsarsukite
Natrolite
Natrophosphate
Nenadkevichite
Nepheline
Opal
Palygorskite
Parisite-(Ce)
Pectolite
Polylithionite ?
Pyrite ?
Quartz
Rhodochrosite
Rinkite
'Rosenbuschite Group'
Sanidine
'Sazhinite'
Sazhinite-(Ce)
Sazhinite-(La) (TL)
Sérandite
Sodalite
Sphalerite
Steacyite
'Steacyite Group'
'Tetranatrolite' ?
Thorite
Thornasite
Titanite
Tobermorite
Todorokite
Tsepinite-Na
Tuperssuatsiaite
Turkestanite ?
'Unnamed (Fe-analogue of Zakharovite)'
'Unnamed (Na-Ca-Fe-Silicate-Hydrate)'
'Unnamed (Na-Ca-silicate)'
'Unnamed (Na-Mg-Mn Oxide)'
'Unnamed (Sazhinite-related mineral I)'
'Unnamed (Sazhinite-related mineral II)'
Villiaumite
Wairakite ?
Windhoekite (TL)
Wurtzite
Yofortierite ?
Zakharovite
var: Ferroan Zakharovite
'Zinnwaldite' ?
Zircon


109 entries listed. 87 valid minerals. 5 type localities (valid minerals). 4 erroneous literature entries.

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

- von Knorring, O. and Franke, W. (1987): A preliminary note on the mineralogy and geochemistry of the Aris phonolite, SWA/Namibia. Comm. Geol. Surv. S.W.Africa (Namibia) 3, 61.
- von Knorring O., Petersen O. V., Karup-Moller S., Leonardsen E. S., Condliffe E. (1992): Tuperssuatsiaite from Aris phonolite. N. J. Mineral., 1992, 145-152.
- Niku-Paavola V. (1997): Alkaline rocks in the Aris area, Central Namibia. Ph. D. Thesis Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Helsinky, 71 pp.
- Petersen O. V., Fockenberg P. C., Toft P. C., Rattay M. (1997): Natrophosphate from Aris phonolite. N. J. Mineral., 1997, 511-517.
- Garvie L. A. J., Devouard B., Groy T. L., Càmara F., Buseck P. R. (1999): Crystal structure of kanemite, NaHSi2O5·3H2O, from the Aris phonolite, Namibia. Amer. Mineral., 87, 1170-1175.
- Wartha, R., Palfi, A., Niedermayr, G., Brandstätter, F. and Petersen, O. V. (2001): Der Aris-Phonolith-Komplex und seine Mineralien. In Bahmann, U. and A. (Eds.), Namibia – Zauberwelt edler Steine und Kristalle, Bode-Verlag, Haltern, Germany, pp. 172-179. (in German)
- Niedermayr G., Gault R. A., Petersen O. V., Brandstatter F. (2002): Korobitsynite from Aris phonolites, Windhoek, Namibia. N. J. Mineral., 2002: 42-48.
- PETERSEN, O.V., NIEDERMAYR, G., PEKOV, I.V., BALIĆ ŽUNIĆ, T. and BRANDSTÄTTER, F. (2004) Tsepinit-Na und Labuntsovit-Mn, seltene Mineralien aus dem Phonolith von Aris, Namibia. Mineralien Welt, 15(2), 44-48 (in German).
- Sturla M., Yakovenchuk V. N., Bonacina E. (2005): Aris, Namibia: geo-paragenesi e minerali. Micro (località), vol. 2005, n. 1, 55-80.
- Ellingsen, H. V. (2006): Sérandit aus Aris, Namibia. Mineralien-Welt 17 (3), 51. (in German)
- Wartha, R., Palfi, A., Niedermayr, G., Brandstätter, F. and Petersen, O. V. (2006): Der Aris-Phonolith-Komplex und seine Mineralien. In: Jahn, S., Medenbach, O., Niedermayr, G. & Schneider, G., Eds. (2006): Namibia – Zauberwelt edler Steine und Kristalle. 2nd ed., Bode-Verlag, Haltern, Germany, pp. 228-239 (in German).
- CÁMARA, F., OTTOLINI, L., DEVOUARD, B., GARVIE, L.A.J. and HAWTHORNE, F.C. (2006) Sazhinite-(La), Na3LaSi6O15(H2O)2, a new mineral from the aris phonolite, Namibia. Mineralogical Magazine, 70, 405-418.
- PIILONEN, P.C., ROWE, R., GRICE, J.D., GAULT, R.A., COOPER, M., KOLITSCH, U., and LECHNER, W. (2007) Two new sodium rare earth fluorcarbonates from the Aris phonolite, Namibia. Abstract with Program 33rd Rochester Mineralogical Symposium (2006); Rocks and Minerals, 82, 243-244.
- PIILONEN, P.C., MCDONALD, A.M., GRICE, J.D., ROWE, R., GAULT, R.A., POIRIER, G., COOPER, M.A., KOLITSCH, U.,ROBERTS, A.C., LECHNER, W. & PALFI, A. (2010) Arisite-(Ce), a new rare-earth fluorcarbonate from the Aris phonolite, Namibia, Mont Saint-Hilaire and the Saint-Amable sill, Quebec, Canada. Canadian Mineralogist 48, 661-671.
- PIILONEN, P.C., McDONALD, A.M., GRICE, J.D., COOPER, M.A., KOLITSCH, U., ROWE, R., GAULT, R.A., and POIRIER, G. (2010) Arisite-(La), a new REE-fluorocarbonate mineral from the Aris phonolite (Namibia) with descriptions of the crystal structures of arisite-(La) and arisite-(Ce). Mineralogical Magazine, 74, 257-268.
- Yakovenchuck, V. N, Ivanyuk, G. Y., Pakhomovsky, Y. A., Selivanova, E. A., Mikhailova, J. A. (2011): Elingsenite, Na5Ca6Si18O38(OH)13 * 6H2O, a new martinite-related mineral species from phonolite of the Aris alkaline complex, Namibia. The Canadian Mineralogist. 49, 1165-1173
- RASTSVETAEVA, R.K., AKSENOV, S.M. & VERIN, I.A. (2012): Crystal structure of the NaCa(Fe2+,Al,Mn)5[Si8O19(OH)](OH)7·5H2O mineral: A new representative of the palygorskite group. Crystallography Reports, 57, 43-48.
- Chukanov, N. V.; Britvin, S. N.; Blass, G.; Belakovskiy, D. I.; Van, K. V. (2012): Windhoekite, Ca2Fe3+3-x(Si8O20)(OH)4•10H2O, a new palygorskite-group mineral from the Aris phonolite, Namibia. European Journal of Mineralogy 24, 171-179.

- Uwe Kolitsch, 2000-2012, unpublished results.

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