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Formula: Na2Mg5(PO4)4.7H2O
Hydrated phosphate
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 2.50 measured, 2.499 calculated
Hardness: 2 to 2½
Streak: White
Colour: Light yellow, colourless or greenish
Luminescence: Not fluorescent under UV
Solubility: Soluble in 10% hydrochloric acid
Environments
Carbonatites
Hydrothermal environments
Localities
At the type locality, the Kovdor Zheleznyi Mine, Kovdor Massif, Murmansk Oblast, Russia, bakhchisaraitsevite was
discovered in assemblages of hydrothermal minerals related to vuggy veins of
dolomite carbonatite
that cut forsterite-magnetite ore
in the alkaline-ultramafic massif.
The hydrothermal minerals are confined to fissures and epigenetic (formed later than the enclosing rocks) cavities formed
in the carbonatite owing to the alteration of
primary sulphides by low-temperature solutions. Assemblages in
voids contain many phosphates, including other hydrous phosphates of magnesium, some of them very rare, as follows:
kovdorskite, cattiite,
girvasite, baricite,
collinsite, bobierrite,
rimkorolgite, krasnovite and
juonniite. Other
species include bonshtedtite,
strontiowhitlockite, gladiusite,
pyrite,
chlorite and nastrophite.
Bakhchisaraitsevite occurs in cavities as free-standing fan-shaped aggregates with perfect cleavage or as
flattened crystals 0.5 x 1.5 x 4 mm in size
(CM 38.831-838, HOM).
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