Iangreyite: a new secondary phosphate mineral closely related to perhamite

Abstract

AbstractIangreyite, ideally Ca2Al7(PO4)2(PO3OH)2(OH,F)15·8H2O, is a new mineral (IMA2009-087) from the Silver Coin mine, Nevada, USA and the Krásno ore district, Horní Slavkov, Czech Republic. At Silver Coin, iangreyite occurs as thin, colourless to white or cream, hexagonal tablets up to 0.4 mm in diameter and 0.02 mm thick associated with meurigite-Na, plumbogummite, kidwellite, lipscombite. strengite, chalcosiderite, wardite, leucophosphite, wavellite, goethite, barite, quartz and F-rich perhamite. At Krásno, white, yellowish or light pink iangreyite coatings consist of 0.3 mm wide clusters of minute and very thin intergrown tabular crystals with a maximum diameter of 0.2 mm. Individual iangreyite crystals are transparent with a vitreous lustre, while iangreyite clusters tend to be pearly and translucent. The estimated hardness is 3 on the Mohs scale, the fracture is irregular and the mineral is non-fluorescent under SW and LW ultraviolet light. Individual crystals are somewhat flexible and there is perfect cleavage on ﹛001﹜. The density (Silver Coin), measured by the sink-float method in an aqueous solution of sodium polytungstate, is 2.46(3) g/cm3, while the calculated density is 2.451 g/cm3. Crystals from Silver Coin are uniaxial (+), with the indices of refraction: ε = 1.544(2) and s = 1.554(2), measured in white light, and are non-pleochroic. The empirical formula for iangreyite from Silver Coin (calculated on the basis of 39 anions per formula unit) is: Ca1.42K0.22Na0.09Ba0.03 Sr0.01Al6.51Mg0.09Fe0.02Cu0.01Zn0.01P3.81F5.24H30.21O33.76, while the empirical formula from Krásno is: Ca2.15K0.10Na0.01Ba0.02Sr0.12Al6.28Mg0.01Fe0.12Cu0.08Zn0.01P3.64Si0.43F4.65H29.62O34.35. Iangreyite is trigonal, space group P321 and Z = 1, with the unit-cell parameters (Silver Coin): a = 6.988(1), c = 16.707(3) Å and V= 706.5(2) Å3 and (Krasno): a = 6.989(1), c = 16.782(4) Å and V = 709.8(2) Å3. The structure of iangreyite, modelled from powder data, consists of blocks of the crandallite-type structure that are interconnected along c via corner-sharing of crandallite-block PO4 tetrahedra with A1O2(OH)3 bipyramids. This linkage generates large channels along [110] bounded by 10-member rings of octahedra, tetrahedra and trigonal biyramids, that are occupied by Ca and water molecules.