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Formula: Zn2Pb4(Si2O7)(SiO4)(SO4)
Sorosilicate (Si2O7 groups)
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 6.07 calculated
Hardness: 4
Streak: White
Colour: Pale yellow, colourless
Solubility: Soluble with difficulty in hot nitric acid (AM 65.407)
Environments
Queitite is an extremely rare mineral approved by the IMA as a mineral species in 1978.
Localities
At the type locality, the Tsumeb Mine, Tsumeb, Oshikoto Region, Namibia, queitite occurs in in the
oxidation zone as tabular and
elongated crystals up to 1.0 cm on corroded galena,
sphalerite and tennantite,
in a partially oxidised lead ore from a
dolostone-hosted hydrothermal polymetallic ore deposit.
Associated minerals include larsenite,
alamosite,
leadhillite, willemite,
melanotekite and quartz
(AM 64.1331, AM 65.407, HOM)
At Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UK, queitite was found in material
consisting predominantly of massive cerussite with subordinate
quartz, and represents the contents of a small cavity from the Red Gill
vein. The cavity also contains leadhillite,
susannite
and caledonite in addition to the quietite, all deposited after
the cerussite. The queitite forms a white encrustation about
0.5 mm thick, on
leadhillite and susannite;
caledonite was the last mineral to form
(JRS 11.29-47, HOM).
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