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Formula: BaCl2
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Environments
Deposit resulting from magmatic salt vapour
Vegrandisite has long been known among chemists as a simple barium salt. It would be expected to be scarce in
natural systems due to its high solubility. Furthermore, systems with highly soluble salts (such as evaporite basins)
are also commonly enriched in sulphate. In the presence of sulphate, barium is
typically immobilised as the highly insoluble mineral baryte
(AM 109.2173)
The naturally occurring mineral vergrandisite was approved in 2024 and to date (December 2024) it has been reported
only from the type locality.
Localities
The type locality, Biely vrch, Detva, Detva District, Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia, is an unusual site in that it
represents an essentially end-member Au porphyry system exhibiting no Cu,
Mo, or sulphide mineralisation. It appears that the porphyry
mineralisation resulted from a magmatic Fe-K-Na-Cl salt vapour with ~10 ppm Au. The anhydrous nature of the ore
mineralisation facilitated the formation of soluble and/or hygroscopic minerals such as vegrandisite, as well as
javorieite, another species discovered at the Biely Vrch deposit
(AM 109.2173)
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