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Formula: BaSr2Mn3+2O2(Si4O12)
Inosilicate (chain silicate), barium-, strontium-
and manganese- bearing mineral
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 4.72 measured, 4.81 calculated
Hardness: 6 to 7
Colour: Emerald-green, blackish green
Common impurities: Al,Pb,Mg,Ca,Na,K
Environments
Localities
There are two co-type localities, the Dzhavodi area and the Zaoblachnyi area, both in the Ir-Nimi manganese deposit, Taikan Ridge,
Khabarovsk Krai, Russia.
At the type localities taikanite occurs as equant grains several tenths of a mm in size, rarely elongate to 1.6 mm, in
hydrothermal manganese ores related to alkalic dikes intruding Cambrian (538.8 to
485.4 million years ago) limestones and siliceous rocks. Associated minerals
include braunite, namansilite and
strakhovite
(HOM, AM 72.226).
At the Wessels Mine, Joe Morolong Local Municipality, John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality, Northern Cape, South Africa, the
sample containing taikanite came from a sugilite-cemented
breccia of hausmannite and
braunite. These sugilite
breccias occur in the middle of the ore body. Pink veinlets of
serandite-pectolite,
sugilite,
potassic-mangani-leakeite, and
hennomartinite formed along the contacts of the
breccia fragments. The compositions and optical properties of the
serandite-pectolite crystals vary within the
veinlets, and the crystals change from pink to colourless. In addition, thin sections of the veinlets show occasional dark red to
orange-yellow crystals that are probably the disilicate kentrolite.
The sugilite breccia contains
sugilite and strongly pleochroic aegirine
with a blue-green tint. The pink veinlets are zoned, showing a rim of aegirine and the
amphibole containing K, Na, Li and Mn3+. The centres of the veinlets are dominated by a zone of comblike
serandite-pectolite. Within this zone, fibres
of potassic-mangani-leakeite and ideomorphic
sugilite have grown
obliquely to the veinlets.
Aggregates of taikanite occur in this
serandite-pectolite felt. Taikanite is
strongly pleochroic (blue-green, turquoise, dark marine blue) and has a preferred orientation oblique to the vein walls. Most
taikanite is prismatic but some samples form fine intergrowths with
serandite-pectolite
(AM 78.1.1088-1095).
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