Gormanite
Gormanite is amongst the phosphate that is new being found from the hydrothermal phosphate deposits at the Rapid Creek, Big Fish River and Blow River areas into the Yukon Territory of Canada. Iron-rich Gormanite forms a set with Magnesium-rich Souzalite. Gormanite is really a mineral that is relatively new been discovered in 1977 and is notably rare. It forms attractive, colorful well created crystals.
Gormanite is found at only a localities which can be few from Rapid Creek, Yukon Territory, Canada. In america, in large crystals at Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona; in New Hampshire, through the G.E. Smith mine, Newport, Sullivan County while the Charles Davis pegmatite, Groton, Grafton County At the Tsaobismund pegmatite, 60 km south of Karibib, Namibia.
| Chemical Formula: | Fe2+3Al4(PO4)4(OH)6•2(H2O) |
| Hydrated Iron Aluminum Phosphate Hydroxide | |
| Molecular Weight: | 793.43 gm |
| Composition: | Aluminum | 13.60 % | Al | 25.70 % | Al2O3 |
| Iron | 21.12 % | Fe | 27.17 % | FeO | |
| Phosphorus | 15.62 % | P | 35.78 % | P2O5 | |
| Hydrogen | 1.27 % | H | 11.35 % | H2O | |
| Oxygen | 48.40 % | O | |||
| 100.00 % | 100.00 % | = TOTAL OXIDE |
| Crystallography: | Triclinic – Unknown or Uncertain Class |
| Crystal Habit: | Crystals are elongated along [010], with large {001}, giving a bladelike aspect, with smaller {100}, {102}, {102}, {010}, to 1 cm; commonly in radial aggregates. |
| Twinning: | Polysynthetic around [010], composition plane {001}, universal. |
| Cleavage: | Poor/Indistinct on {001} |
| Fracture: | Irregular/Uneven |
| Tenacity: | Brittle |
| Moh’s Hardness: | 4.0 – 5.0 |
| Density: | 3.10 – 3.13 (g/cm3) |
| Luminescence: | None |
| Radioactivity: | Not Radioactive |
| Color: | Blue-Green |
| Transparency: | Semi-Transparent to Opaque |
| Luster: | Vitreous |
| Refractive Index: | 1.619 – 1.660 Biaxial ( – ) |
| Birefringence: | 0.0410 |
| Dispersion: | Strong to Very Strong; r < v or r > v |
| Pleochroism: | X = Z = colorless; Y = blue |
