Pandoraite-Ba

pandoraite-Ba

carnotite

montroseite

corvusite

Images

Formula: BaV4+5V5+2O16.3H2O
Vanadate, barium-bearing mineral
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 3.24 measured, 3.256 calculated for the empirical formula, 3.301 calculated for the ideal formula
Hardness: 2½
Streak: Light greenish blue
Colour: Dark blue
Luminescence: Not fluorescent under UV

Sedimentary environments
Hydrothermal environments

Pandoraite-Ba is a relatively new mineral, approved in 2018 and to date (June 2023) reported only from the type locality.

Localities

At the type locality, the Pandora mine, La Sal Mine, La Sal Mining District, San Juan County, Utah, USA, the uranium and vanadium ore mineralisation was deposited where solutions rich in uranium and vanadium encountered pockets of strongly reducing solutions that had developed around accumulations of carbonaceous plant material. Under ambient temperatures and generally oxidising near-surface conditions, water reacts with pyrite and chalcopyrite to form aqueous solutions with relatively low pH (acid), which then react with earlier-formed montroseite-corvusite assemblages, resulting in diverse suites of secondary minerals.
Pandoraite-Ba and pandoraite-Ca are rare and occur on matrix consisting of recrystallised quartz grains from the original sandstone, that are intermixed with an unknown iron-vanadium-oxide phase.
Well-formed crystals of carnotite and tiny plates of a barium - iron - vanadium bearing member of the alunite supergroup are intimately associated with pandoraite-Ba. The pandoraite minerals occur as thin, dark blue, square plates up to approximately 100 microns across and approximately 2 microns thick (CM 57.255-265).

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