Argutite

©

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This article is a place holder and needs someone to take it in hand and finish the first draft. If you would like to take this article in hand, leave a reply message below or contact Rock Currier via private message by clicking on the PM button next to my name at the top of the article.



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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 Argutite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Argutite. 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 Argutite that will go into the article.



Argutite
GeO₂ Tetragonal

We could use a better picture of this mineral, if in fact there are better specimens.


*Argutite Rare species collections.
GeO2
France
Haute-Garonne, Central Pyrénées, Argut Deposit.

As of 2009 there are about two dozen Germanium minerals. When Germanium does occur it is usually as a minor constituent and when it is dominant in a lattice position it is usually as a small weight per cent of the mineral. So to get a simple Germanium oxide like Argutite is quite interesting and Germanium's rarity leads one to expect small crystals. “Argutite occurs in sphalerite as 10 μm euhedral to subhedral prismatic crystals with a predominance of {111}, {100}, and {101}.forms. It is also associated with cassiterite, siderite and rarely with briartite. Optically, argutite is similar to cassiterite with a light gray reflectance and a distinct anisotropy.”¹ 10 μm is a thousandth of a cm!!! That is far smaller than the pixels In the 1.7 cm photo above. There may well be Argutite in that piece, but only a polished section or probe mount could show it. These days one can assemble a fairly large collection of such invisible minerals.

1 American Mineralogist, Vol.69, p.406, 1984.



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Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2012 08:30AM by Rock Currier.

10 μm is a thousandth of a cm!!! That is far smaller than the pixels In the 1.7 cm photo above. There may well be Argutite in that piece, but only a polished section or probe mount could show it. These days one can assemble a fairly large collection of such invisible minerals.

Bob, thats exactly the kind of stuff that needs to be in the article. Perhaps you can write the article on this one.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Other than the T in Briartite I don't have much else to add. But I'll count the Germanium minerals and edit what I can.