A new mineral species, named naquite(FeSi), is found in the podiform chromitites of the Luobusha ophiolite in Qusong County, Tibet, China. The detailed composition is Fe 65.65, Si 32.57 and Al 1.78 wt%. The mineral is cubic, space group P213. The irregular crystals range from 15 to 50 μm in diameter and form an intergrowth with luobusaite. Naquite is steel grey in color, opaque, with a metallic lustre and gives a grayish-black streak. The mineral is brittle, has a conchoidal fracture and no apparent cleavage. The estimated Mohs hardness is 6.5, and the calculated density is 6.128 g/cm3. Unit-cell parameters are a 4.486 (4) A, V 90.28 (6)A^3, Z=4. The five strongest powder diffraction lines [d inA(hkl) (I/I0)] are: 3.1742 (110) (40), 2.5917(111) (43), 2.0076 (210) (100), 1.8307 (211) (65), and 1.1990 (321) (36). Originally called 'fersilicite', the species and new name have now been approved by the CNMNC (IMA 2010-010).
SHI NlchengBAI WenjiLI GuowuXIONG MingYANG JingsuMA ZheshengRONG He
A group of mantle minerals including about 70-80 subtypes of minerals are discovered from a podiform chromitite in Tibet, China. Recovered minerals include diamond, coesite, moissanite, wustite, Fe-silides and a new mineral, luobusaite. All of these minerals were hand-picked from heavymineral separates of the podiform chromitite in the mantle peridotite of an ophiolite. The grains of luobusaite are as host mineral with inclusions of native silicon or as an intergrowth with native silicon and Fe-Si phase. Luobusaite occurs as irregular grains, with 0.1-0.2 mm in size, consisting of very finegrained aggregates. The mineral is steel-grey in color, metallic luster, and opaque. The empirical formula (based on 2 for Si) is Fe0.83Si2, according to the chemical compositions of luobusaite. X-ray powder-diffraction data: orthorhombic system, space group Cmca, a = 9.874 (14) A, b = 7.784 (5) A, c= 7.829(7) A, Z=16.
BAI WenjiSHI NichengFANG QingsongLI GuowuXIONG MingYANG JingsuiRONG He
We describe the new mineral species titanium, ideally Ti, found in the podiform chromitites of the Luobusha ophiolite in Tibet, People's Republic of China. The irregular crystals range from 0.1 to 0.6 mm in diameter and form an intergrowth with coesite and kyanite. Titanium is silver grey in colour, the luster is metallic, it is opaque, the streak is grayish black, and it is non-fluorescent. The mineral is malleable, has a rough to hackly fracture and has no apparent cleavage. The estimated Mohs hardness is 4, and the calculated density is 4.503 g/cm3. The composition is Ti 99.23-100.00 wt%. The mineral is hexagonal, space group P6flmmc. Unit-cell parameters are a 2.950 (2) ~, c 4.686 (1) A,V 35.32 (5) A3, Z = 2. The five strongest powder diffraction lines [d in A (hkl) (I/I0)] are: 2.569 (010) (32), 2.254(011) (100), 1.730 (012) (16), 1.478 (110) (21), and 0.9464 (121) (8). The species and name were approved by the CNMNC (IMA 2010-044).