Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T17:32:30.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The discreditation of oboyerite and a note on the crystal structure of plumbotellurite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2019

Owen P. Missen*
Affiliation:
Geosciences, Museums Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne3001, Victoria, Australia School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton3800, Victoria, Australia
Michael S. Rumsey
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, LondonSW7 5BD, UK
Anthony R. Kampf
Affiliation:
Mineral Sciences Department, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, California90007, USA
Stuart J. Mills
Affiliation:
Geosciences, Museums Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne3001, Victoria, Australia
Malcolm E. Back
Affiliation:
Department of Natural History, Mineralogy, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, OntarioM5S 2C6, Canada
John Spratt
Affiliation:
Core Research Laboratories, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, LondonSW7 5BD, UK.
*
*Author for correspondence: Owen P. Missen, Email: omissen@museum.vic.gov.au

Abstract

The mineral ‘oboyerite’, first described in 1979 from the Grand Central mine, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA, has been re-examined. The type specimen from the Natural History Museum, London and a specimen from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (traceable to S. A Williams, who first described ‘oboyerite’) were analysed in this study. The discreditation of ‘oboyerite’ as a valid mineral species has been approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association (Proposal 19-D). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, electron probe microanalysis and scanning electron microscopy were all employed to show that ‘oboyerite’ is formed of at least two distinct phases, including the lead–tellurium oxysalt minerals ottoite and plumbotellurite. During the course of the discreditation, plumbotellurite was confirmed to be identical to the synthetic compound α-Pb2+Te4+O3. Previously, in some mineralogical literature plumbotellurite was described as orthorhombic with no known crystal structure.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Associate Editor: Oleg I Siidra

References

Back, M.E. (1990) A Study of Tellurite Minerals: Their Physical and Chemical Data Compatibility, and Structural Crystallography. MSc Thesis, University of Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
Bindi, L. and Cipriani, C. (2003) The crystal structure of winstanleyite, TiTe3O8, from the Grand Central Mine, Tombstone, Arizona. The Canadian Mineralogist, 41, 14691473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brugger, J., Liu, W., Etschmann, B., Mei, Y., Sherman, D.M. and Testemale, D. (2016) A review of the coordination chemistry of hydrothermal systems, or do coordination changes make ore deposits? Chemical Geology, 447, 219253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruker (2001) SADABS and XPREP. Bruker AXS Inc., Madison, WI, USA.Google Scholar
Christy, A.G., Mills, S.J. and Kampf, A.R. (2016) A review of the structural architecture of tellurium oxycompounds. Mineralogical Magazine, 80, 415545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, P.J. (1990) The discreditation of mineral species. American Mineralogist, 75, 928929.Google Scholar
Grundler, P.V., Brugger, J., Etschmann, B.E., Helm, L., Liu, W., Spry, P.G., Tian, Y., Testemale, D. and Pring, A. (2013) Speciation of aqueous tellurium (IV) in hydrothermal solutions and vapors, and the role of oxidized tellurium species in Te transport and gold deposition. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 120, 298325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kabsch, W. (2010) XDS. Acta Crystallographica, D66, 125132.Google Scholar
Kampf, A.R., Housley, R.M., Mills, S.J., Marty, J. and Thorne, B. (2010) Lead–tellurium oxysalts from Otto Mountain near Baker, California: I. Ottoite, Pb2TeO5, a new mineral with chains of tellurate octahedra. American Mineralogist, 95, 13291336.Google Scholar
Kampf, A.R., Mills, S.J., Rumsey, M.S., Dini, M., Birch, W.D., Spratt, J., Pluth, J. J., Steele, I.M., Jenkins, R.A. and Pinch, W.W. (2012) The heteropolymolybdate family: structural relations, nomenclature scheme and new species. Mineralogical Magazine, 76, 11751207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kampf, A.R., Mills, S.J. and Rumsey, M.S. (2017) The discreditation of girdite. Mineralogical Magazine, 81, 11251128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mariolacos, K. (1969) Die Kristallstruktur von PbTeO3. Anzeiger der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Mathematisch – Naturwissenschatliche Klasse, 106, 129130.Google Scholar
Missen, O.P., Kampf, A.R., Mills, S.J., Housley, R.M., Spratt, J., Welch, M.D., Coolbaugh, M.F., Marty, J., Chorazewicz, M. and Ferraris, C. (2019) The crystal structures of the mixed-valence tellurium oxysalts tlapallite, (Ca,Pb)3CaCu6[Te4+3Te6+O12]2(Te4+O3)2(SO4)2·3H2O, and carlfriesite, CaTe4+2Te6+O8. Mineralogical Magazine, 83, 539549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyawaki, R., Hatert, F., Pasero, M. and Mills, S.J. (2019) IMA Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification, NEWSLETTER 51– New minerals and nomenclature modifications approved in 2019. Mineralogical Magazine, 83, 761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, A.C. (1980) A triclinic unit cell for oboyerite. Geological Survey of Canada Paper, 80, 295.Google Scholar
Sheldrick, G.M. (2015 a) SHELXT – Integrated space-group and crystal-structure determination. Acta Crystallographica, A71, 38.Google Scholar
Sheldrick, G.M. (2015 b) Crystal structure refinement with SHELXL. Acta Crystallographica, C71, 38.Google Scholar
Spiridonov, E. and Tananaeva, O. (1982) Plumbotellurite, α-PbTeO3 – a new mineral. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR, 262, 12311235.Google Scholar
Weil, M., Shirkhanlou, M., Füglein, E. and Libowitzky, E. (2018) Determination of the correct composition of “hydrous lead (II) oxotellurate (IV)” as PbTeO3, crystallizing as a new polymorph. Crystals, 8, 51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, S.A. (1975) Xocomecatlite, Cu3TeO4(OH)4, and tlalocite, Cu10Zn6(TeO3)(TeO4)2Cl(OH)25·27H2O, two new minerals from Moctezuma, Sonora, Mexico. Mineralogical Magazine, 40, 221226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, S.A. (1979) Girdite, oboyerite, fairbankite, and winstanleyite, four new tellurium minerals from Tombstone, Arizona. Mineralogical Magazine, 43, 453457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, S.A. and Cesbron, F.P. (1985) Yecoraite, Fe3Bi5(TeO3)(TeO4)2O9·nH2O, a new mineral from Sonora, Mexico. Boletín de Mineralogía, 1, 1016.Google Scholar
Zavodnik, V.E., Ivanov, S.A. and Stash, A.I. (2008) [α]-Lead tellurite from single-crystal data. Acta Crystallographica, E64, i16.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Missen et al. supplementary material

Missen et al. supplementary material

Download Missen et al. supplementary material(File)
File 604.6 KB