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Nigerite, a new tin mineral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

F. A. Bannister
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy, British Museum
M. H. Hey
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy, British Museum
H. P. Stadler
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Leeds

Extract

The discovery of nigerite, a new tin-bearing mineral, by R. Jacobson and J. S. Webb claims more than the passing interest of an addition to the few known species containing appreciable tin. Nigerite is the first mineral to be discovered in which both tin and aluminium are essential constituents. Its chief interest to mineralogists lies in its close relationship to minerals like spinel and corundum based on a close-packed or nearly close-packed assemblage of oxygen ions.

Samples of nigerite submitted to us for investigation consist of brittle, lustrous, brown, weakly magnetic, hexagonal plates up to 5 x 2 mm. in size but mostly much smaller. These samples also contained grains of cassiterite, columbite, gahnite, sillimanite, quartz, andalusite, and chrysoberyl, which were easily separated by hand-picking.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1947

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References

page 129 note 1 Jacobson, R. and Webb, J. S., Min. Mag., 1947, vol. 28, pp. 118128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 129 note 2 Examination of a separate sample by D. L. Williams in the Museum confirmed these results except for Li and Ti. He also found Pb, Ca, and P. This discrepancy is probably due to non-uniformity of sample.

page 131 note 1 This conclusion is supported by the recalculation of the analysis to atomic ratios on a basis of 24(O,OH); if the Fe⃛ is assigned with the Al, the excess over the most probable value of 12·00 is only 0·09, corresponding to 0·72 % Fe2O3.

page 132 note 1 Zn has been assigned to complete the Sn positions, since it has the nearest ionic radius to Sn of the other metals present.

page 132 note 2 So far only approximate values of the refractive indices of nigerite have been obtained by the Becke line method, ω 1·80, 1·81.

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