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Formula: CaCuAlSi2O6(OH)3
Cyclosilicate (ring silicate)
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 3.25 measured, 3.25 calculated
Hardness: 5 to 5½
Streak: Very pale blue
Colour: Cerulean blue
Solubility: Partly soluble in boiling concentrated hydrochloric acid
Common impurities: Fe,Mn,Ti,Mg,H2O
Environments:
Papagoite is a rare secondary mineral.
Localities
At the Messina Mine, Musina, Musina Local Municipality, Vhembe District Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa,
papagoite occurs either as finely disseminated crystals in quartz or as
centimetre-size massive, cleaved aggregates, although the latter form is extremely rare. The papagoite-included
quartz crystals range in size from thumbnail to several centimetres. Groups of
crystals are most common, although not all crystals in a group are included by papagoite. Associated minerals
include hematite, copper,
cuprite, kaolinite,
chlorite and ajoite. Some specimens
collected from the dumps after the mines had closed may have small yellow-green
epidote and orange-red manganese-rich
epidote present. The very rare mineral
cuprorivaite has also found here as inclusions in
quartz; shattuckite has been
suggested, but only through visual identification, and on analysis all such specimens have turned out to be
papagoite.
(R&M 97.2.152-159)
At the type locality, the New Cornelia mine, Ajo, Pima county, Arizona, USA, papagoite occurs in narrow veinlets in
metasomatically altered granodiorite (HOM) on a rock
that consists chiefly of quartz and
albite;
associated with this assemblage are lesser amounts of muscovite variety
sericite,
epidote and calcite, and minor amounts
of
apatite, rutile,
titanite, zircon,
anatase and alunite;
tenorite, (AM 45.599),
aurichalcite, shattuckite,
ajoite and baryte may also be present
(HOM).
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