New Mineral Names

Abstract

This issue of New Mineral Names provides a summary of the newly described minerals from 2023 and selected information for recent descriptions from October to December of 2023. New mineral name trends and observations are presented using an objective, data-driven, and curated examination of new mineral species and their broader implications.A total of 112 new mineral species were approved in 2023; see Bosi et al. 2023a–f, 2024, and references therein. This is a significant increase from 2022, which saw 77 new mineral species approved. Of the new species approved in 2023, 85 introduced new root names. Papikeite, tetrahedrite-(Cd), tennantite-(In), mangani-eckermannite, magnesio-dutrowite, and xenotime-(Gd), among others, belong to existing nomenclature systems. At the time of writing, at least 13 of the new minerals were previously known as synthetic compounds, including downsite, ebnerite, and hokkaidoite. There were at least 17 new structure types reported. This figure is not exact, as the structural details for these most recent new minerals are unpublished and the novelty of the structure was not specified for 13 minerals. Minerals with structures noted as being related to known structures were not counted as having novel structure types. There were four new dimorphs defined for existing minerals, including tartarosite, a new C allotrope discovered at the Ries Impact Crater, Germany. Two new minerals approved in 2023 from the Rowley mine, Arizona, U.S.A., ebnerite and epiebnerite, were reported as dimorphs of (NH4)Zn(PO4); this combination of essential elements had not previously been observed in a natural mineral (www.mindat.org, accessed February 2024). Only one mineral with an extraterrestrial type/cotype specimen was approved in 2023: jianmuite (ZrTi53+Al3O16) was described from a terrestrial locality (the Cr-11 orebody in the Luobusha ophiolite complex, China) with a designated cotype found in a fragment of the Allende meteorite (Bosi et al. 2023e).Type and co-type localities for the 2023 cohort of new minerals are shown in Figure 1. New mineral discoveries predominantly occurred in central Europe, with a total of 27 originating from Germany (10), Czech Republic (8), Poland (4), Slovakia (2), Switzerland (2), and Hungary (1). Among these contributions are several new minerals from classic localities with numerous type locality species, including pegmatites in the Neustadt an der Waldnaab District in Germany (e.g., Hagendorf South) as well as the Lengenbach quarry in the Binn Valley, Switzerland. Other prolific areas also added new type locality minerals in 2023, such as the Dara-i-Pioz Massif in Tajikistan, the Poudrette quarry in Canada (included in the Monteregian Hills in Fig. 1), and the Tolbachik Volcanic Field in Russia. The three new minerals for the Dara-i-Pioz Massif, two new minerals from Poudrette quarry, and five new minerals for the Tolbachik Volcano bring their respective type locality species counts to 43, 73, and 147, respectively.Some localities that have emerged as prolific producers of new species within the last few years include the Freedom no. 2 mine in Utah (U.S.A.), the Redmond mine in North Carolina (U.S.A.), Pusch Ridge in Arizona (U.S.A.), and the Rowley mine in Arizona (U.S.A.). Each has produced new species largely within specific chemical classes. The Pusch Ridge and Rowley Mine localities are also notable in producing a host of unusual organic minerals. There has been a rise in descriptions of organic and post-mining minerals in recent years as old mines are revisited to collect mineral samples.The Freedom no. 2 mine is a defunct clay-hosted U mine that has produced five new secondary Mo species in 2022 and 2023 and is also the type locality for the mineral umohoite, (UO2)MoO4·2H2O, first reported in 1953 (Brophy and Kerr 1953). The Redmond mine is an extinct Pb mine in western North Carolina where the primary sulfide ore consists mostly of galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite. Although only one new mineral species from the Redmond mine {dinilawiite; [Pb4O2Al(OH)5]2(S2O3)2·H2(S2O3)(H2O)5} was approved in 2023, a total of 15 new Pb/Zn/Cu sulfate and thiosulfate species have been described from this mine since 2021. Prior to the approval of redmondite, [Pb8O2Zn(OH)6](S2O3)4, no new species had been recognized from this once obscure North Carolina locality (Kampf et al. 2023).In 2019, the Pusch Ridge locality in Arizona was the site of discovery for the first approved glycolate mineral, lazaraskeite, Cu(C2H3O3)2 (Yang et al. 2022). In 2022 and 2023, four additional glycolate minerals from this locality were approved by the IMA-CNMNC, leading to the definition of the glycolate group. The western end of Pusch Ridge, where the new species were found, is directly adjacent to a suburban neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona. Another notable locality for organic minerals (also in south central Arizona) is the Rowley mine. The Rowley mine is a long-inactive mine accessing metalliferous quartz and baryte veins with rich assemblages of secondary mineral species. The mine is most famous among mineral collectors as a source of wulfenite and mimetite specimens. In 2016, the mineral rowleyite ([Na(NH4,K)9Cl4][V25+,4+ (P,As)O8]6·n[H2O,Na,NH4,K,Cl]) was approved as the first type locality species from the mine. In the following years, an additional 12 new mineral species were described from the mine (mostly from the 125’ level). All of the new Rowley mine species variably include organically derived molecules in their structures, such as ammonia (NH4), oxalate (C2O4), and (monohydrogen) phosphate; these are likely post-mining phases formed from the interaction of bat guano with decomposing primary and secondary minerals in the ore veins.This section features just a few of the 32 minerals approved by the IMACNMNC in the period October–December 2023; see Table 1 for the list and cursory details of all 32 minerals (Bosi et al. 2023f, 2024; Warr 2021).Vanpeltite (IMA2023-078; Vpt) is a new mineral from the Freedom no. 2 mine, Marysvale Mining District, Piute Co., Utah, U.S.A (Gu et al. 2023). Vanpeltite is the first natural molybdate sulfite and is the first natural occurrence of the (⁠Mo2VIO5)2+ oxycation (www.mindat.org, accessed February 2024). Interestingly, the recently approved mineral downsite (IMA2022-119; awaiting publication), the structure of which is built from chains of regular molybdate octahedra, also occurs in this unique Mo mineral assemblage. Vanpeltite is chemically comparable to the mineral bouškaite, (MoO2)2O(SO3OH)2(H2O)4 (Sejkora et al. 2019), which contains two shorter molybdenyl MoVI=O bonds. However, the structure determined for vanpeltite is reported to be new to the mineral kingdom, although specific details have yet to be published. Crystals of vanpeltite are monoclinic; its structure was solved in the space group I2/m with a = 8.6069(10), b = 5.2991(7), c = 23.135(3) Å, β = 90.087(5)°. Cotype material is deposited in the collections of the University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum, Tucson, Arizona 85701, U.S.A., catalog number 22733, and the RRUFF Project, deposition number R230006.Skogbyite (IMA2023-085; Skb), bearing the ideal formula Zr(Mg2Mn43+⁠)SiO12, is a new mineral from the Långban mine, Långban Ore District, Filipstad, Värmland County, Sweden (Jonsson et al. 2023). The Långban mine is one of the most prolific mineral localities on Earth with more than 300 valid minerals occurring there, including 78 minerals for which the Långban mine is the type locality. Skogbyite is the Mg-analog of gatedalite, ZrMn22+Mn43+SiO12 (Bosi and Hålenius 2015), which was also first discovered at the Långban mine. The essential Mg makes the composition of skogbyite a unique combination of elements among minerals and distinguishes skogbyite from 32 other Zr-Mn silicate minerals (www.mindat.org, accessed February 2024). This composition is also unusual for the Långban mine: of the more than 300 mineral species reported from the Långban mine to date, only five bear essential Zr (www.mindat.org, accessed February 2024). Apart from skogbyite and gatedalite, these include the common minerals zircon and baddeleyite, as well as the rare species hiärneite (Ca2Zr4Mn3+SbTiO16). The structure of the new mineral is tetragonal and was solved in the I41/acd space group with a = 9.4914(4), c = 18.9875(10) Å. Type material is deposited in the collections of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, Sweden (catalog number GEO-NRM20230033).Xenotime-(Gd) (IMA2023-091; Xtm-Gd), ideally GdPO4, is a new mineral found in the Zimná Voda vein, Slovenské Rudohorie (Slovak Ore Mountains), 5.6 km south of the village of Prakovce and 400 m northwest of Trohanka bivouac shelter, Košice Region, Slovakia (Ondrejka et al. 2024). Like other members of the xenotime group, the new mineral is tetragonal, I41/amd; its cell parameters are: a = 6.9589(5), c = 6.0518(6) Å. The Gd end-member is the third rare earth element (REE) phosphate member of the xenotime group to be described, after the Y and Yb end-members, respectively. Due to the rarity of preferential enrichments in middle REEs in nature, xenotime-(Gd) is only the third-ever Gd-essential mineral, after leperssonite-(Gd) and monazite-(Gd)—the latter of which is a dimorph of xenotime-(Gd). Both Gd-dominant monazite and Gd-dominant xenotime were first reported from the Zimná Voda U occurrence, Košice Region, Slovakia (Ondrejka et al. 2023). These authors attribute this rarely observed middle-REE enrichment at the Zimná Voda U occurrence to the low-temperature alteration of uraninite, brannerite, and fluorapatite and mobilization of REEs into the hydrothermal fluid that later deposited REE-U-Au mineralization in quartz veins. Middle-REE enrichment resulting in species-defining Gd concentrations was limited to one sample studied by Ondrejka et al. (2023). Xenotime-(Gd) type material is deposited in the collections of the Slovak National Museum, Natural History Museum, 81006 Bratislava, Slovakia, catalog number M20412.Bayanoboite-(Y) (IMA 2023-084; Byb-Y), ideally Ba2Y(CO3)2F3, is a new fluorcarbonate species from the main pit at the Bayan Obo Deposit, Inner Mongolia, China (Xue et al., 2024). Bayanoboite-(Y) is named for the world-class Bayan Obo deposit. The Bayan Obo deposit is the world’s largest rare earth element resource, and mineralization is hosted in Paleoproterozoic carbonate rocks of the Bayan Obo group whose exact origins are contentious at present (Smith et al. 2015). A total of 17 new mineral species were first described from Bayan Obo—all of which contain either Ba, Nb, F, or rare earth elements as essential elements. Bayanoboite-(Y) is the most chemically simple Ba-Y carbonate mineral described to date. Bayanoboite-(Y) has a new structure type and crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pbcn with a = 9.4528(4), b = 6.9499(2), c = 11.7638(5) Å. The holotype specimen was deposited in the Geological Museum of China, Beijing (catalog number GMCTM2023008). A designated cotype specimen is stored in the Crystal Structure Laboratory at the China University of Geosciences, Beijing (catalog number BYEB-2).Dinilawiite (IMA 2023-061; Dlw), ideally [Pb4O2Al(OH)5]2 (S2O3)2·H2(S2O3)(H2O)5, is a new thiosulfate species discovered in a secondary assemblage derived from the weathering of a quartz vein containing disseminated galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite at the Redmond mine in North Carolina, U.S.A. (Kampf et al. 2023). With the addition of dinilawiite, a total of eight new thiosulfate species have been discovered at the Redmond mine. Dinilawiite has a novel structure type and crystallizes in space group I2/a with a = 17.4100(5), b = 9.2191(2), c = 21.698(1) Å, β = 107.276(8)°. The name “dinilawiite” is taken from the Cherokee word for “twin” (dinilawi), in allusion to the ubiquitous twinning observed in the cotype samples. Cotype specimens are stored in the collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles with catalog numbers 76289, 76290, 76291, and 76292.This section includes some of the minerals approved in 2023 that have been recently published (or entered press).Virgilluethite (IMA2023-006; Vlh), ideally MoO3·H2O, was discovered at the Summit group of claims near Cookes Peak, Luna County, New Mexico, U.S.A. (Yang et al. 2023). Virgilluethite crystals exist as pseudo-morphs after sidwillite, and are associated with sidwillite, raydemarkite, tianhuixinite, ilsemannite, jordisite, powellite, fluorite, baryte, pyrite, and quartz. It is monoclinic, space group P21/c, with unit-cell parameters a = 7.2834(3), b = 10.6949(6), c = 7.4861(3) Å, β = 112.779(2)°, V = 583.03(5) Å3, and Z = 4. The crystal structure of virgilluethite, which is topologically identical to that of tungstite (WO3·H2O), is characterized by highly distorted and elongated MoO5(H2O) octahedra. Virgilluethite and raydemarkite are dimorphs of MoO3·H2O. Unlike virgilluethite, the MoO6 octahedra in raydemarkite share edges to form isolated double chains, resembling those found in zhenruite, (MoO3)2·H2O. Virgilluethite is named for Virgil Lueth, senior mineralogist/economic geologist and director of the New Mexico Bureau of Geology Mineral Museum at New Mexico Tech. Holotype material is deposited at the University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum (catalog number 22723); a cotype specimen was deposited with the RRUFF Project (designated R220017).Natromelansonite (IMA2023-076; Nmso), ideally Na3Zr [Si7AlO19]·4H2O, is a new rhodesite group mineral discovered at the Poudrette quarry, Quebec, Canada (Lykova et al. 2024). In the type material, natromelansonite is associated with steacyite, polylithionite, rhodochro-site, and an admixture of nearly X-ray amorphous clay minerals (Lykova et al. in press). Natromelansonite is the latest of 73 mineral species whose type (or cotype) specimens come from the Poudrette quarry. Natromelansonite is monoclinic and crystallizes in space group P21/m with a = 6.5130(1), b = 24.0944(4), c = 6.9755(1) Å, β = 90.747(1)°. The name was chosen to convey the close chemical and structural relationship of natromelansonite to melansonite (KNa2Zr(Si7Al)O19∙4–5H2O; IMA 2018-168). From their studies of natromelansonite, Lykova et al. (in press) suggested a redefinition of the structural formula for melansonite; the simplified version is given above. As the redefinition of the melansonite formula is not presently in use, natromelansonite currently represents a unique combination of elements among valid mineral species. While numerous (K-)Na-Zr silicates (e.g., laverovite, catapleiite) are known, only natromelansonite—and potentially melansonite—contain essential Al. Holotype material is stored at the Canadian Museum of Nature with catalog number CMNMC 90813.Désorite, ideally Pb2(⁠Fe63+Zn)O2(PO4)4(OH)8, is a secondary mineral discovered from the dumps of the Schöne Aussicht mine, Dernbach, Westerwaldkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (Kampf et al. 2024). Désorite is triclinic, space group P1; the unit-cell parameters are a = 5.4389(7), b = 9.3242(13), c = 10.0927(12) Å, α = 109.024(8), β = 90.521(6), γ = 97.588(7)°, V = 478.90(11) Å3, and Z = 1. Désorite crystallized with a framework structure assembled from Fe3+O6 octahedra and PO4 tetrahedra, with Pb occupying cavities in the framework. The Fe3+O6 octahedra in the framework occur in edge-sharing chains, edge-sharing trimers, and individual octahedra, all sharing corners with each other and with PO4 tetrahedra. The IMA newsletter wherein the acceptance of désorite was first published (Bosi et al. 2024) states that désorite has a novel structure, but this has since been revised; désorite is isostructural with jamesite and lulzacite (Kampf et al. 2024). Désorite is named for the analytical mineralogist and mineral collector Joy Désor (who first analyzed the type specimen), as well as his ancestor, the Swiss geologist Pierre Jean Édouard Désor (1811–1882).