A number of rare-element minerals from the Meldon aplite are described, e.g. native arsenic and antimony, arsenolite, stibiconite, and various niobium-tantalum minerals. Some of the minerals are new to the occurrence and some may be new to the British Isles. Particular attention has been paid to the Nb-Ta minerals and a large number of electron-microprobe analyses for manganocolumbite, manganotantalite, and microlite are presented. Examination of numerous, minute crystals and fragments of columbite-tantalite revealed a complex oscillatory zoning, indicating a slow rate of cooling and perhaps incomplete miscibility of the isomorphous columbite-tantalite series.

Straczekite, a new calcium barium potassium vanadate from Wilson Springs (formerly Potash Sulfur Springs), Arkansas, occurs as a rare secondary mineral in fibrous seams in gangue. The dark greenish-black crystals are very soft, thin laths up to 0.5 mm in length, forming thick masses. No single-crystal X-ray patterns could be obtained, but good electron diffraction patterns yielded a monoclinic unit cell in space group C2/m, C2, or Cm. The cell parameters were refined by least squares analysis of Guinier-Hägg X-ray powder data: a 11.679(2), b 3.6608(4), c 10.636(2)Å, β = 100.53(4)° (strongest lines are: 003, 3.486, 100; 001, 10.449, 50; 020 1.8306, 50; 01/510, 1.9437, 15; 111/03, 3.255, 10; 311/12, 2.492, 10; 021, 1.8030, 10). Chemical analysis yields the formula: (Ca0.39Ba0.31K0.33Na0.11)(V1.594+V6.315+Fe0.103+)O20.02(H2O)2.9. The calculated density is 3.21 g/cm3. The mineral conforms to a series of synthetic vanadium bronzes, typified by Ag1-xV2O5 of known structure. It represents a new series of layer vanadate minerals of general formula MxV8O20·yH2O, similar in properties but distinct from the hewettite series (MxV6O16·yH2O).

Variation in composition, Fe3+/Fe2+ ratio, per cent mixed-layering, and d(060) spacing have been determined both between and within grains of glauconite from the Folkestone Beds at 286.5 m in the Tollgate bore, Sandwich, Kent. Grains extracted from the rock were classified on the basis of size into large (> 1 mm) and small (< 1 mm), and on colour into light and dark green. Large grains have a progressive increase in Fe3+/Fe2+ ratio with increase in total iron, while small grains have variable ratios; the largest variation is in the dark grains. The effect of the range of Fe3+/Fe2+ ratio variations on structural formula (e.g. R3+) is discussed. The per cent mixed-layering is not related to colour. There is a greater variation in Al, Fe, and K contents in and between large grains than small grains. Both sizes of grains may be separated on d(060) spacings determined by X-ray diffraction. Glauconite from coral and gastropod casts has different d(060) spacings than that from bryozoan casts and variegated grains, but is similar to the small grains. Large light grains may have developed from small light grains but it is unlikely that the large dark grains developed from small dark grains. The large grains probably all formed under similar conditions, with a common origin; the small from several sources or from a single source under a variety of conditions.

Ilvaite is an alteration product of carbonate, which itself replaced clinopyroxene, in a Precambrian tholeiitic dyke. Additional secondary minerals are ferroactinolite, cummingtonite, chlorite, biotite, prehnite, and epidote. Microprobe analyses demonstrate that the ilvaite is close to the ideal end-member composition [CaFe22+Fe3+Si2O8 (OH)] and that only cummingtonites, Mg/(Mg+Fe2+) 0.77–0.39, and carbonates (solid solutions between calcite and dolomite, dolomite and ankerite, magnesite and siderite) show significant compositional variations. It is estimated that ilvaite formed at temperatures < 470 °C and at pressures < 2 kbar, probably during a low-grade metamorphic event (or events) associated with the Caledonian orogeny. The fluids involved in the alteration process contained both CO2 and H2O, initial fluids probably being richer in CO2 than later ones. Ilvaite may be more common in hydrothermally altered igneous rocks than previously supposed.

Macaulayite was found by the late I. Stephen (Soil Science Department, University of Aberdeen) in an outcrop of reddened, deeply weathered granite, near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. It is blood red in colour, very fine-grained, and has refractive indices greater than 1.734. Its calculated density is 4.41 g/cm3. The mean of fourteen electron microprobe analyses in the anhydrous form is Fe2O3 84.67, Al2O3 4.01, SiO2 11.32%. With thermogravimetric data this leads to a formula of (Al3.38)Si7.95O86(OH)4; the ideal formula is Si4O43(OH)2. The cell indexes as C-centred monoclinic with a 5.038, b 8.726, c 36.342Å, β 92°. The strongest X-ray lines are 36.6 (vs), 18.16 (vs), 3.700 (25), 2.720 (35), 2.533 (100), 2.214 (20), and 1.420 (35). Macaulayite has a layer structure, thought to consist of a double hematite unit terminated on both sides by silicate sheets and with water between these sheets. The infra-red spectrum includes absorption bands at 3597, 1052, 1033, and 858 cm−1, arising from the hydroxysilicate component of the mineral and at 647, 520, 438, 400, 304, and 227 cm−1 corresponding to the platy hematite unit. The mineral is named for the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research and the name was approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names of the International Mineralogical Association prior to publication.

A new occurrence of zaherite is reported from a sillimanite quarry 65 km west of Pofadder, Bushmanland, South Africa. It occurs as earthy white to light bluish-green cryptocrystalline material in narrow veins, in close association with natro-alunite and hotsonite, a new hydrated aluminium phosphate-sulphate. Scanning electron micrographs show an orientated wavy texture and tubular fibres. The optical and physical properties agree with those of the type material described from Pakistan, and it can be added that the mineral is biaxial positive with a moderate 2V and length-fast orientation. The new chemical analysis yields an ideal formula of Al12(SO4)5(OH)26·20H2O, which is identical to that of the type material. The white and light bluishgreen varieties are identical in major element composition but yielded trace Cu values of 1281 and 2408 ppm respectively. The X-ray powder diffraction pattern fits a triclinic symmetry (a 5.55, b 9.74, c 18.43Å, α 99.71°, β 89.13° γ 94.97°), and is dominated by one intense reflection at 18.12 Å, representing 001. The most important of the weak lines are (d, I, hkl): 9.56, 5, 010; 9.08, 4, 002; 4.82, 6, 01; 4.61, 8, 110; 4.56, 4, 02; 4.44, 4, 021; 3.61, 4, 1; 3.22, 8, 015. The differential thermal properties are characterized by endothermic peaks at 190, 470, and 685°C and a duplex at 880 and 910°C The infrared absorption spectrum is characterized by absorption bands centring about 905, 960, 985, 1150, 1700, and 3600 cm−1.