Images
Formula: [Pb2Zn(OH)4](SO4).H2O
Sulphate
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 5.011 calculated for the empirical formula, 4.998 calculated for the ideal formula
Hardness: 2½
Streak: White
Colour: Colourless to pale pink
Luminescence: Not fluorescent under long wave or short wave UV
Solubility: In room-temperature dilute hydrochloric acid, cherokeeite immediately turns opaque and slowly
dissolves
Environments
Metamorphic environments
Hydrothermal environments
Cherokeeite is a new mineral, approved in 2022 and to date (August 2023) reported only from the type locality.
Localities
At the type locality, the Redmond mine, Waterville Lake, Haywood County, North Carolina, USA, cherokeeite and
cuprocherokeeite were found underground. The ore, consisting
mainly of galena and sphalerite
with lesser chalcopyrite, occurs in an epithermal vein system consisting
of disconnected sulphide-bearing quartz lenses near the contact between a
granite gneiss and a
mica schist. Cherokeeite
and cuprocherokeeite occur together in an unusual, localised,
secondary mineral assemblage in vugs in massive
galena - sphalerite -
chalcopyrite - quartz.
Cherokeeite also occurs with anglesite,
bechererite, chenite,
elyite, haywoodite,
hydroredmondite, lanarkite,
redmondite, steverustite,
sulfatoredmondite,
susannite, and several other potentially new minerals.
Cherokeeite crystals are short to long prisms or blades with wedge-like pyramidal terminations up to about
1 mm in length occurring in subparallel to divergent intergrowths
(CJMP 61.635–647).
Back to Minerals