Fluorbritholite-(Nd), Ca2Nd3(SiO4)3F, a new and key mineral for neodymium sequestration in REE skarnsShow others and affiliations
2023 (English)In: Mineralogical magazine, ISSN 0026-461X, E-ISSN 1471-8022, Vol. 87, no 5, p. 731-737Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Fluorbritholite-(Nd), ideally Ca2Nd3(SiO4)3F, is an approved mineral (IMA 2023-001) and constitutes a new member of the britholite group of the apatite supergroup. It occurs in skarn from the Malmkärra iron mine, Norberg, Västmanland (one of the Bastnäs-type deposits in Sweden), associated with calcite, dolomite, magnetite, lizardite, talc, fluorite, baryte, scheelite, gadolinite-(Nd) and other REE minerals. Fluorbritholite-(Nd) forms anhedral and small grains, rarely up to 250 µm across. They are brownish pink, transparent with a vitreous to greasy luster. The mineral is brittle, with an uneven or subconchoidal fracture, and lacks a cleavage. In thin section, the mineral is nonpleochroic, uniaxial (-). Dcalc = 4.92(1) g·cm-3 and ncalc = 1.795. The empirical chemical formula from electron microprobe (WDS) point analyses is (Ca1.62Nd0.97Ce0.83Y0.52Sm0.30Gd0.23Pr0.17La0.16Dy0.11Er0.03Tb0.03Ho0.01Yb0.01)Σ4.99(Si2.92P0.08As0.01)Σ3.01O12.00[O0.48F0.26(OH)0.14Cl0.10Br0.02]Σ1.00. The crystal structure of fluorbritholite-(Nd) was refined from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data to R1= 0.043 for 704 unique reflections. It belongs to the hexagonal system, space group P63/m, with unit cell parameters a = 9.5994(3), c = 6.9892(4) Å, V = 557.76(5) Å3 for Z = 2. Fluorbritholite-(Nd) and other britholite-group minerals are a major sink for neodymium in REE-bearing skarns of Bastnäs type.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. Vol. 87, no 5, p. 731-737
Keywords [en]
fluorbritholite-(Nd), britholite group, apatite supergroup, new mineral, crystal structure, neodymium, REE ore, skarn, Norberg, Sweden
National Category
Geology
Research subject
The changing Earth
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:nrm:diva-5471DOI: 10.1180/mgm.2023.45OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nrm-5471DiVA, id: diva2:1818449
2023-12-112023-12-112023-12-18Bibliographically approved