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Formula: Ca3(SbSn)(AlO4)3
Oxide, bitikleite group,
garnet supergroup,
antimony-bearing mineral, Forms solid-solution series with
kerimasite, kimzeyite,
morimotoite, schorlomite and
toturite
Crystal System: Isometric
Specific gravity: 4.505 calculated
Colour: Light yellow or colourless
Environments
Bitikleite is a relatively new mineral, approved in 2009 and to date (July 2023) reported only from the
type locality
Localities
At the type locality, Xenolith no. 1, Lakargi Mountain, Upper Chegem volcanic caldera, Baksan Valley,
Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, bitikleite has been found as an accessory minerals in the
cuspidine zone of high-temperature
skarn in a carbonate-silicate xenolith at the contact with
ignimbrite. The bitikleite series forms a solid solution
with garnets of the kimzeyite -
schorlomite and toturite type.
Antimony-garnets form crystals up
to 50 µm across containing kimzeyite cores and thin subsequent zones of
complex lakargiite -
tazheranite- kimzeyite
pseudomorphs after zircon
(AM 95.7.959-967).
Associated minerals include wadalite,
toturite, tazheranite,
rondorfite,
magnesioferrite, larnite,
lakargiite and kimzeyite
(Mindat).
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