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Formula: TiSi2
Silicide of titanium
Crystal System: Orthorhombic
Environments
Zhiqinite is a relatively new mineral, approved in 2019 and to date (May 2023) reported only from the type
locality
Localities
At the type locality, Orebody CR-11, Kangjinla Cr deposit, Luobusha ophiolite, Qusum county, Shannan Prefecture,
Tibet, China, titanium minerals enclosed in
corundum separated from the orebody include native
titanium, zangboite,
osbornite-khamrabaevite
solid solutions and jingsuiite, as well as the new minerals
badengzhuite and zhiqinite and two potentially new minerals.
These minerals together constitute a spheroid 20 µm across inferred to have crystallised from a droplet of
titanium–silicon–phosphorus intermetallic melt.
It is suggested that interaction of mantle-derived CH4 + H2 fluids with
basaltic magmas in the shallow lithosphere (depths of ∼ 30–100 km)
under reducing conditions resulted in precipitation of corundum that
entrapped intermetallic melts, some of which crystallised to ultra-reduced
titanium–phosphorus–silicon phases
(EJM 32.557–574).
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