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Formula: Cu6(PO4)2(OH)6.H2O
Hydrated phosphate contaning hydroxyl
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 3.8 measured, 3.904 calculated
Hardness: 4
Streak: Pale blue
Colour: Emerald-green
Environments
Metamorphic environments
Hydrothermal environments
Localities
At the Block 14 opencut, Broken Hill, Broken Hill district, Yancowinna county, New South Wales, Australia,
kipushite is extremely rare, and occurs as 0.1 mm thick crusts and 0.8 mm clusters of bright turquoise-green
platy crystals in heavily iron-stained quartzite. It is closely
associated with olive-green to bluish green crystals of zinc-bearing
olivenite grading rowards
libethenite. The kipushite is rich in
arsenic
(AJM 3.1.47).
At the type locality, the Kipushi mine, Kipushi, Haut-Katanga, DR Congo, the mineralisation consists of
zinc, lead,
copper and iron sulphides with
accessory gallium, germanium,
molybdenum, tungsten and
vanadium. It occurs in
dolostone and
schist-dolostone.
The thickness of the weathered zone extended to about 100 metres in depth; this zone has now been completely mined
out. The most abundant minerals of that zone were cerussite,
malachite, smithsonite,
hemimorphite, cuprite and
hematite, with a rich association of accessory
copper-zinc-lead-iron
phosphates, carbonates, silicates, sulphates and vanadates.
Kipushite occurs as a secondary mineral in the oxidised
zone. Associated minerals include pseudomalachite in dark blue
nodules, earthy pale green malachite, blue and green
hemimorphite, colourless sticks of
pyromorphite, ultramarine crystalline masses of
veszelyite, yellow and olive-green crusts of
vauquelinite, acicular crystal clusters of
libethenite, quartz and
iron oxides
(CM 23.35-42).
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