Dellagiustaite: A Novel Natural Spinel Containing V2

Dellagiustaite, ideally Al2V2+O4, is a new spinel-group mineral from Sierra de Comechingones, San Luis, Argentina, where it is found associated with hibonite (containing tubular inclusions, 5–100 μm, of metallic vanadium), grossite, and two other unknown phases with ideal stoichiometry of Ca2Al3O6F...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Minerals (Basel) 2019-01, Vol.9 (1), p.4
Main Authors: Cámara, Fernando, Bindi, Luca, Pagano, Adriana, Pagano, Renato, Gain, Sarah, Griffin, William
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alloys
Argentina
Classification
crystal structure
Crystals
dellagiustaite
Israel
Minerals
Mt Carmel
new mineral species
Oxidation
oxyspinel subgroup
Physical properties
Sierra de Comechingones
Solid solutions
spinel supergroup
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Summary:Dellagiustaite, ideally Al2V2+O4, is a new spinel-group mineral from Sierra de Comechingones, San Luis, Argentina, where it is found associated with hibonite (containing tubular inclusions, 5–100 μm, of metallic vanadium), grossite, and two other unknown phases with ideal stoichiometry of Ca2Al3O6F and Ca2Al2SiO7. A very similar rock containing dellagiustaite has been found at Mt Carmel (northern Israel), where super-reduced mineral assemblages have crystallized from high-T melts trapped in corundum aggregates (micro-xenoliths) within picritic-tholeiitic lavas ejected from Cretaceous volcanoes. In the holotype, euhedral grains of dellagiustaite are found as inclusions in grossite. The empirical average chemical formula of dellagiustaite is (Al1.09 V 0.91 2 + V 0.87 3 + Mg0.08 Ti 0.04 3 + Mn0.01)Σ3O4, but it may show limited replacement of V2+ by Mg and of V3+ by Al. As Al is the dominant trivalent cation, the ideal formula is Al2V2+O4 according to the current IMA rules. Dellagiustaite shows the usual space group of spinel-group minerals (Fd 3 ¯ m, R1 = 1.46%) with a = 8.1950(1) Å. The observed mean bond lengths = 1.782(2) Å and = 2.0445(9) Å, the observed site scattering (T = 13.3 eps, M = 22.5 eps), and the chemical composition show that dellagiustaite is an inverse spinel: T tetrahedra are occupied by Al3+, whereas M octahedra are occupied by V2+ and V3+, leading to the site assignment as TAlM( V 0.91 2 + V 0.88 3 + Al 0.09 3 + Mg0.08 Ti 0.03 3 + Mn0.01)O4.
ISSN:2075-163X
2075-163X
DOI:10.3390/min9010004