Images
Formula: Zn6(PO4)2(SO4)(OH)4.7H2O
Phosphate
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 3.12 calculated for the empirical formula, 3.06 calculated for the ideal formula
Hardness: 3
Streak: White
Colour: Colourless
Luminescence: No fluorescence under UV
Environments
Vanderheydenite is a relatively new mineral, approved in 2014 and to date (February 2024) reported
only from the type locality.
Localities
At the type locality, the Block 14 opencut, Broken Hill, Broken Hill district, Yancowinna county, New South Wales,
Australia, vanderheydenite occurs as aggregates of colourless crystals up to 0.5 mm across in voids of a
sphalerite–galena matrix.
Associated minerals include anglesite,
pyromorphite, sulphur and
liversidgeite. Crystals are pseudohexagonal blades up to 0.4 mm in
length
(EJM 30.4.835-840).
Vanderheydenite is a secondary mineral in a highly
weathered recrystallized sulphide ore as a result of the release of Zn, S, As, and P from the breakdown of
sphalerite, galena and
fluorapatite
(HOM).
Back to Minerals