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Formula:Fe3+2(PO4)(SO4)(OH).6H2O
Compound phosphate
Specific gravity: 2.0 to 2.4
Hardness: 3 to 4
Streak: Yellow to yellow-brown
Colour: Yellow to greenish-yellow or brown, reddish brown, light green, light yellow; pale yellow to yellowish brown in transmitted light.
Solubility: Readily soluble in acids.
Environments
Pegmatites
Metamorphic environments
Diadochite is an amorphous secondary mineral in
gossans and some coal deposits, formed by sulphate-rich solutions acting on
earlier phosphates, possibly
of post-mining origin. It also occurs in cave deposits, where the phosphate is derived from guano, and it is widespread in
secondary phosphate assemblages in
granite pegmatites
(HOM, Mindat). Associated minerals include hydroxylapatite,
vashegyite,
pitticite, melanterite,
vivianite, wavellite,
leucophosphite, phosphosiderite,
ferrostrunzite, beraunite,
mitridatite, rockbridgeite,
jahnsite, roscherite and
limonite (HOM, Mindat).
Localities
At Llallagua, Bolivia, diadochite has been found in layers up to 60 cm deep (MinRec 37.2.133).
At the type locality, Arnsbach, Hockeroda, Thuringia, Germany, diadochite occurs in
slate altered by
ground water, perhaps originally post-mine in occurrence, associated with pyrite
(Mindat).
At the Emmons pegmatite, Greenwood, Oxford county, Maine, USA, diadochite is common in some areas where altered
phosphate pods are associated with sulphides. The Emmons pegmatite is an example of a highly evolved
boron-lithium-cesium-tantalum
enriched pegmatite
(R&M 94.6.506).
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