Bariosincosite, a new hydrated barium vanadium phosphate, from the Spring Creek Mine, South Australia.

Abstract

Bariosincosite is a new barium vanadium phosphate hydrate from the Spring Creek Mine, near Wilmington, South Australia. The new mineral occurs as irregular clusters of pale green, very thin platey crystals up to 250 mu m across and 2 to 5 mu m thick. The tetragonal crystals are tabular on {001} and the other form present is {100}. Associated with bariosincosite are quartz, cuprite, native copper, fluorapatite, whitlockite, baryte and springcreekite, BaV (super 3+) 3 (PO 4 ) 2 (OH, H 2 O) 6 . Bariosincosite appears to have formed under supergene or low-temperature late-stage hydrothermal conditions. Electron microprobe analysis yielded: BaO 23.20; SrO 4.19; CaO 0.36; VO 2 31.55; Fe 2 O 3 0.20; Al 2 O 3 0.50; P 2 O 5 28.15; H 2 O 13.93 (calculated). These data give an empirical formula of (Ba (sub 0.77) Sr (sub 0.20) Ca (sub 0.03) ) (sub Sigma 1.00) [(V (super 4+) (sub 0.96) Al (sub 0.03) Fe (super 3+) (sub 0.01) ) (sub S1.00) O(PO 4 )] 2 .4H 2 O, calculated on the basis of two P atoms. The simplified formula is Ba(V (super 4+) OPO 4 ) 2 .4H 2 O. The mineral is transparent with a very pale green streak, a vitreous lustre and an estimated Mohs hardness of 3. The strongest lines in the X-ray powder pattern are [d obs (I obs ) (hkl)] 6.414 (20) (110, 002); 5.748 (70) (111); 4.552 (30) (112, 200); 3.198 (20) (220, 004); 3.100 (100) (203, 221); 2.847 (40) (222, 114); 2.786 (80) (311); 2.368 (30) (313, 115); and 2.017 (100) (420, 332, 116). These data were indexed on a tetragonal cell, with a = 9.031(6), c = 12.755(8) Aa and V = 1040(1) Aa 3 ; the space group is probably P4/n or P4/nmm. For Z = 4 and using the empirical formula, the calculated density is 3.306 gm/cm 3 . Bariosincosite is uniaxial negative with omega = 1.721(2) and epsilon = 1.715(2) (white light); pleochroism is weak from colourless (E) to pale green (O), absorption O>E. The mineral is named for the relationship to sincosite, Ca(V (super 4+) OPO 4 ) 2 .4H 2 O.