Proxitwelvefoldite

proxitwelvefoldite

quasicrystal

melonite

lizardite

Images

Formula: Pd3Ni4Te8
Telluride, palladium- and nickel- bearing mineral
Crystal system: Tetragonal
Environments

Plutonic igneous environments
Metamorphic environments

Proxitwelvefoldite is a new mineral, approved in 2024 and pending publication as of May 2025.

Localities

From the type locality, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire, Western Australia, Australia, proxitwelvefoldite was discovered in a historic specimen in the Natural History Museum of the University of Florence; it is very rare and occurs as micrometer-sized crystals associated with iron-bearing melonite in a silicate matrix composed of major chlorite and lizardite. Its name indicates its pseudo-12-fold symmetry. Proxitwelvefoldite is the first terrestrial pseudo-dodecagonal quasicrystal approximant, a periodic crystalline solid with a composition close to that of a quasicrystal, and its existence suggests that a dodecagonal quasicrystal may exist in the Pd-Ni-Te system. The find is significant because natural quasicrystals have so far been described only from extraterrestrial samples (AM 110.5.830).

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