Billwiseite, Ideally Sb3+5(Nb,Ta)3WO18, A New Oxide Mineral Species from the Stak Nala Pegmatite, Nanga Parbat - Haramosh Massif, Pakistan: Description and Crystal Structure

Abstract

Billwiseite, ideally Sb 3+ 5 (Nb,Ta) 3 WO 18 , is an oxide mineral from a granitic pegmatite on the eastern margin of the Nanga Parbat – Haramosh massif at Stak Nala, 70 km east of Gilgit, Pakistan. It is transparent, pale yellow (with a tinge of green), has a colorless to very pale-yellow streak, a vitreous luster, and is inert to ultraviolet radiation. Crystals are euhedral with a maximum size of ∽ 0.5 × 0.25 × 0.15 mm and show the following forms: {100} pinacoid ≈ {011} pinacoid ≈ {410} prism; contact twins on (100) are common. Cleavage is {100} indistinct, Mohs hardness is 5, and billwiseite is brittle with a hackly fracture. The calculated density is 6.330 g/cm 3 . The indices of refraction were not measured; the calculated index of refraction is 2.3, 2 V ( obs ) = 76(2)°. Billwiseite is colorless in transmitted light, non-pleochroic, and the optic orientation is as follows: X ‖ b , Y ^ c = 72.8° (in β acute). It occurs scattered across the surface of a large (∽5 × 2.5 × 1.3 cm) crystal of lepidolite from a miarolitic cavity. The most abundant minerals in the cavities at Stak Nala are albite, quartz, K-feldspar, tourmaline, muscovite or lepidolite, topaz and fluorite, and billwiseite can be partly mantled by B-rich muscovite. Billwiseite is monoclinic, space group C 2/ c , a 54.116(5), b 49143(5), c 5.5482(5) A, β 90.425(2)°, V 1475.5(2) A 3 , Z = 4, a:b:c = 11.012 : 1 : 1.131. The strongest seven lines in the X-ray powder-diffraction pattern [ d in A( I ) hkl ] are as follows: 3.147(100)(911, 911), 3.500(55) (511, 511), 1.662(53)(1422), 3.017(48)(1800), 1.906(47)(1820), 1.735(30)(113, 113), 1.762(25)(2711, 2711). Chemical analysis by electron microprobe gave Nb 2 O 5 12.03, Ta 2 O 5 19.31, Sb 2 O 3 48.34, TiO 2 0.99, WO 3 19.96, sum 100.63 wt.% where the valence state of Sb was determined by crystal-structure analysis. The resulting empirical formula on the basis of 18 O anions is Sb 3+ 4.87 (Nb 1.33 Ta 1.28 Ti 0.18 W 1.26 ) Σ4.05 O 18 . The crystal structure of billwiseite was solved by direct methods and refined to an R 1 index of 4.71% based on 2122 observed reflections collected on a three-circle diffractometer with Mo K α X-radiation. The structure consists of two distinct sheets of M (= Ta,Nb,W) octahedra and three distinct sheets of Sb 3+ polyhedra parallel to (100). These sheets alternate in the a direction to form a continuous structure.