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Formula: NaCaAl(PO4)F3
Anhydrous phosphate containing halogen
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Specific gravity: 3.245 measured, 3.242 calculated
Hardness: 5
Colour: Grey-white
Solubility: Readily dissolved by nitric and sulphuric acid
Environments
Plutonic igneous environments
Pegmatites
Carbonatites
Localities
At the Francon quarry, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, exceedingly rare viitaniemiite crystallised in the surfaces of
vesicles in an alkalic silicocarbonatite, as delicate sprays and as solitary crystals up to 2 x0.5 x 0.2 mm in size.
The vesicles are lined with crystals of colourless cryolite,
calcite and yellow weloganite, and
lesser amounts of viitaniemiite, pyrite,
quartz, fluorite,
dresserite, dawsonite,
galena and sphalerite. Minute cubes
of pyrite and fluorite have commonly
grown on the viitaniemiite. In addition, cryolite has overgrown some
viitaniemiite crystals near their points of attachment
(CM 21.499-502).
Viitaniemiite precedes cryolite,
fluorite and pyrite in the paragenesis
(Minrec 37.1.47).
The Francon viitaniemiite is manganese-free
(AM 69.961-966).
At the type locality, the Viitaniemi pegmatite, Eräjärvi area, Orivesi, Pirkanmaa, Finland, viitaniemiite occurs
in the complex zoned granite
pegmatite as an inclusion in
eosphorite and rimming morinite.
It crystallised during hydrothermal replacement processes caused by residual fluids of the
pegmatite melt. Associated minerals include
fluorapatite, crandallite
and montebrasite, as well as
eosphorite and morinite
(AM 66.1102, AM 69.961-966, HOM).
At the Greifenstein Rocks, Ehrenfriedersdorf, Erzgebirgskreis, Saxony, Germany, viitaniemiite occurs in druses
in granite associated with
lacroixite, morinite,
apatite, childrenite,
roscherite and tourmaline
(HOM). It also occurs here associated with greifensteinite in
a lithium-rich
pegmatite
(CM 42.229).
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