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Formula: Sb3+TaO4
Tantalate,
cervantite group,
antimony-bearing mineral, forms a series with
stibiocolumbite
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Specific gravity: 5.98 to 7.34 measured, 7.58 calculated (7.391 calculated for the sample from China, presumably
for the empirical formula)
Hardness: 5½ to 6
Streak: Light yellow, yellow-brown
Colour: Dark brown to light yellowish brown, reddish yellow, reddish brown, greenish yellow
Common impurities: Nb
Environments
Stibiotantalite is an uncommon accessory mineral in complex
granite
pegmatites
(HOM).
Localities
At the type locality, the Greenbushes Sn placers, Greenbushes Tinfield, Bridgetown-Greenbushes Shire, Western
Australia, stibiotantalite has been found in a waterworn pebble associated with
tantalite
(Mindat).
At the Nanyangshan 363 deposit, Nanyangshan pegmatite field, Lushi County, Sanmenxia, Henan, China, a sample
of stibiotantalite was collected from the rare-metal bearing lithium
- cesium - tantalum
pegmatite.
The stibiotantalite occurs in an albite-rich unit of the
pegmatite where it is associated with
columbite-(Mn),
tantalite-(Mn), albite,
quartz, elbaite,
spodumene, and the
lithium-micas
polylithionite,
trilithionite,
luanshiweiite and
fluorluanshiweiite. The stibiotantalite is commonly
replaced by oxystibiomicrolite,
oxycalcioroméite,
stibnite, bismuthinite and
cervantite;
oxycalciomicrolite and
oxycalcioroméite are the most common replacement products.
The stibiotantalite forms as prismatic, pale to dark grey crystals with maximum dimensions of 5 cm in length
and 2 cm in width
(CJMP 61.965-977).
At Varuträsk, Skellefteå, Västerbotten County, Sweden, stibiotantalite is associated with
antimony, stibarsen,
microlite,
oxystibiomicrolite,
lithiophilite, alkali-beryl,
cassiterite and
columbite–tantalite
(HOM).
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